Ship of Lost Souls
by RansomeNote
Summary: What started out as an innocent plan to finish a bucket list soon turned into something more sinister. Now, four best friends have to try to defend themselves from the horrors within the haunted ship, the St. Dreyar, all while trying to solve the mystery of the strange disappearances that happened there. NaLu!
1. The St Dreyer

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"Ya know, I really don't get how you roped us into this." The dark haired male said as he threw a heavy bag that looked like it was suited for camping over the barbed wire fence that had a sign that said in big red letters 'NO TRESPASSING!' _This is illegal._ Gray thought, but jumped the fence anyway.

"C'mon Ice Princess, don't act like your not excited." The pink-haired male said as he watched his brother-figure/nemesis from the other side of the fence with the bag that was just thrown over it. Natsu grinned as he saw Gray unable to retort, only letting out a scoff. He dropped to the ground expertly and then took the bag from the other male.

"I would be lying to say that I am not excited also. It is quite thrilling." Erza Scarlet, a beautiful scarlet-haired girl said as she jumped next to them with ease. The soft smile on her face quickly vanished as she glared at the two. "If we get caught, don't be surprised when I maim you. I can't have this going on my record because of your stupid list." Natsu looked like he was about to retort, but a more fierce glare from Erza made him shut right up. Gray had to hold in his laugh.

"I still d-don't think that this is a good idea." Another voice said as she also jumped the fence with ease, being the head of the gymnastics team. He golden hair was tied in a high ponytail that flew in the strong wind that washed over the harbor. Her chocolate brown eyes were wide and aware and her breathing was quick and erratic.

"Calm down, Luce. It's gonna be fine." Natsu said as he swung his muscular arm over his best friend's shoulder. Lucy didn't look convinced, but she nodded anyway. She could have been doing much better things right now, like reading the new novel that Levy had just gotten her, or practicing her gymnastics. But no, her stupid but lovable best friend had to bring her into this.

~Flashback: Three days before~

 _"Aha!" The pink-haired idiot screamed from inside his house as he emerged from his room._

 _It was the middle of July of the four teen's summer vacation. Gray and Erza were playing Smash Bros on Natsu's couch, Erza having a crazy look in her eye, looking like she was on a mission to crush Gray into the ground, which she was doing. Lucy was peacefully taking a nap, her head on Erza's lap and her feet on Gray's. It was a mystery to all of them how she was able to sleep through all of their ruckus, but Natsu explained that it was because she was a weirdo, stating the fact like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Natsu had just left them to their own devices for a little while so he could disappear into his room for half an hour, planning on rummaging through the mess he called a bedroom._

 _It was the summer before the four of them had to go to college. When the four of them had found out that they would all be going to Fairy Tail University together, they had all been positively ecstatic. Natsu and Lucy already knew where each other were going right when they got their acceptance letters because they were first to tell each other everything. It was almost as if they had no secrets in between each other. Lucy wasn't even embarrassed to tell Natsu when she was having her 'time of the month' and she needed Natsu to run to the pharmacy to get her pads. Yeah, they were_ that _close._

 _Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Erza spent almost every day of summer together. The only days they didn't was when Lucy was too tired to hang out because of gym practice (which actually didn't stop Natsu from breaking into her house and hanging out with her), when they had family vacations, or when Erza was hanging out with her boyfriend Jellal. All the other days were spent anywhere the four teens were willing to go with each other to, mostly consisting of each other's houses._

 _"What is it, you pink-haired pyro?" Gray asked while not taking his eyes of the screen, afraid that he was going to lose. But then, Natsu, who was feeling in the mood to be a dick to Gray, stood directly in front of the screen, blocking his view._

"And the winner is...Kirby!" _The voice on the screen said as Erza sent a sly look Gray's way. Gray looked about ready to pounce on Natsu, but didn't want to wake Lucy, so he just glared at the idiot. Well, there was that and the fact that Erza was sitting right next to him and he didn't want to face her wrath if he fought with Natsu. Natsu took this chance to show them what he was looking for._

 _"I finally found it! My BLBC!" He said as he grinned triumphantly, as he showed them a piece of crumpled up paper that had multiple stains and Natsu's illegible handwriting._

 _"Sorry, I don't speak delirious." Gray stated bluntly. Natsu rolled his eyes._

 _"It's my 'Bucket List before College'! I've been looking for it everywhere!" Natsu said, marveling it as if it was a piece of artwork. "I was looking for it so we could do one of the things here. I couldn't even finish half of it because I didn't know where it was. We probably don't have time to do everything, but it could be fun to do something on here._

 _Erza gently lifted Lucy's head from her lap and set her down on the couch before standing up and snatching the list from Natsu and reading over it._

 _"Walk on a wooden plank over a tank of man-eating sharks, get in a cop chase, pants a teacher...what the hell is this!?" Erza yelled as she smacked Natsu over the head, sending him to the ground. Hearing Natsu's loud whining, Lucy stirred from her sleep, finally sitting up._

 _"What's going on?" She asked Gray, trying to rub the drowsiness out of her eyes. Gray just shrugged._

 _"Natsu made a list of things that will probably get his ass killed or arrested in the long run." Gray replied. All traces of sleepiness left Lucy's face as she brightened up.  
_

 _"You found your BLBC!" She said as she gave him a wide smile._

 _"See, Luce appreciates me!" Natsu said, cautiously scrambling away from Erza as he went to hug her on the couch._

 _"Lucy, you knew of these suicide attempts of his?" Erza asked with a raised eyebrow._

 _"Well, when we wrote it, we were just screwing around. But Natsu was completely broken after he lost it." She said ruffling his hair. "I guess I didn't realize at the time that he actually_ did _want to do all of those things."_

 _"Well, he was suggesting that we do something from this dumbass list." Gray said, motioning Erza to hand the piece of paper over to him._

 _"Hmmm," Lucy contemplated as she tapped her chin. "as long as we're not doing the cop chase or the shark tank, I'm fine with anything on there."_

 _"YAY!" Natsu yelled as he placed a sloppy kiss on Lucy's temple, and action that she was completely used to and often getting misunderstood from the girls in her school._

 _They were just best friends! What did people_ not _get?_

 _Natsu snatched the list from Gray and read over it, deciding that he was the one that was going to pick what they did, since he wrote the list. "Oh, this is perfect!" He pointed his finger to his choice and the other three teens hovered around it._

 _"I-I don't remember that being there when we wrote that!" Lucy stuttered._

 _"It wasn't. I put it in a few weeks after we wrote this." Natsu said, giving her a boyish grin._

 _"Like I said, this list is going to get us killed or arrested." Gray said as he breathed a heavy sigh, unconsciously stripping off his shirt._

 _"What was going through your mind when you wrote this, Natsu!?" Erza scolded him, making him shrink back a little. Erza then turned her gaze to Gray. "Your shirt." She said in an impatient tone._

 _"Crap!" Gray yelled as he threw back on his shirt._

 _"Come on guys! It'll be fun!" Natsu said, trying to convince them. Then Natsu, Erza, and Gray got into an argument._

 _Lucy picked up the paper and looked at the words scribbled on the bottom of the paper in all caps and in red. She did say that she was willing to do almost anything on this list with him, but she wasn't too sure about this choice._

SPEND A WEEKEND ON THE HAUNTED CRUISE SHIP, THE ST. DREYER!

~End of Flashback~

Now, the four friends stood in the abandoned harbor in the middle of the night with a cruise ship right in front of them, backpacks and sleeping bags strapped to their back. It was not too big, only about 25,000 gross tons in size ( **A/N: The Titanic was around 46,000 gross tons** ), however, it still towered over them, the rusting on the exterior and the moss growing on some parts of the ship just adding to the creepy affect. The words _St. Dreyer_ were printed on the side of the ship in a blue paint that was almost completely chipped off. All in all, it looked like a creepy, haunted ship.

 _Why the hell isn't there security here?_ Lucy thought as she shook a little bit.

The harbor was about fifteen miles away from any real civilization, so they had to get dropped off in the closest city by train, then take a cab to a run-down convenience store about a mile from the harbor, where they stocked up on some drinks and food, and then they walked all the rest of the way there.

"Okay, so how exactly are we gonna get in?" Gray asked, looking the unstable ramp that led up to the main deck. Natsu just smirked and grabbed onto one of the ropes docking the ship to the harbor.

"Grab a rope and let's climb." He said, securing his backpack tightly before hoisting himself on one of the ropes, climbing expertly. Gray and Erza followed his example, neither of them showing any hesitation on their faces.

Lucy on the other hand, was still staring at the rope that she was supposed to climb. It looked sturdy enough, and even if she fell, she would most likely end up landing back on the harbor. But climbing the rope wasn't the only problem.

It was the fear of going onto the ship.

She had heard of St. Dreyer before; the war ship turned cruise ship forty years ago. They had to stop sailing because of the number of people that went missing. Some say it was the restless souls of the dead soldiers that died, and that scared most people off, making the company lose all of their money and close down sailing. They also locked the ship away in an abandoned harbor to make sure that the public wouldn't be in any danger. Lucy shivered at the thought of ghosts.

However, there hasn't been a thing that she hadn't done with Natsu. And he would be heartbroken to know that she chickened out and bailed.

With that final thought, Lucy grabbed tightly onto the rope, and started to climb.

 **Hello again! So yes, I have started a new story even though I said that there was a small chance that I would. The idea is based on the legend of the Queen Mary ship that took it's voyage in 1936, however the plot is completely my own and I will make up my own detailed backstory for the ship, so please stay tuned. This story will probably not be as long as my other one, but I'll try to get as many chapters as I can.**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are! :) And thank you to all that are reading my story!**

 **Tell me what you thought of this chapter in the review section. Remember, all criticism is welcome, though I would prefer constructive over destructive!**


	2. Chandelier

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Lucy had finally finished climbing the ropes after a little bit of effort. She swung her legs over the railing and landed on the deck, grimacing at the sound of creaky floor boards.

" _Finally_ Luce! What took ya so long?" Natsu said as he stood in front of her. Lucy glared and pushed him a little, but couldn't help the smile that started to spread over her face. "Okay, okay, sorry!" He said putting his hands up in defense. "First things first! Let's go hunt some ghosts!" Natsu yelled, pumping his fist in the air. Erza breathed a heavy sigh before taking his wrist and flipping him so he was now on his back.

"No, you dolt! The first thing that we have to do is establish a base so we can set down all of our equipment. Then we have to ration our portions that we brought. After that, we can map the area to make sure we can navigate our way without getting lost." Erza said in an affirmative tone. "Do I make myself clear?" She asked with a stern glare.

"Aye sir!" Both Gray and Lucy said as they saluted.

"Aye sir..." Natsu said, still trying to get over the pain in his back after being flipped. But Natsu, being Natsu, was able to gather his guts and stand up again, looking as if he had never been flipped in the first place. "They have a main ballroom, and we could probably lay down our sleeping bags there." Natsu suggested.

"Just wondering, why don't we use one of the bedrooms on the cruise ship?" Lucy asked.

"I'd agree with you Lucy, but I don't want to take the chance of lifting the covers to find a dead person underneath it." Gray said as he unconsciously shivered.

"Alright, now that we have that settled, onward!" Erza said as she led the way as if she were the tour guide. There was a metal door that was used to get off of the deck and into the compartments. Because of the rust that formed around it, it was a little hard to pry loose, but Erza, with her monstrous strength, was able the wrench the door free. The four of them looked down the dark deep hallway.

"So...who's goin' first?" Gray asked.

Natsu had a wide smirk on his face. "It's always lady's first Gray." He said before pushing Lucy in, making her glare at him. He followed directly afterwards, and Gray and Erza entered at the same time. The four of them switched on their flashlights as they continued down the hallway.

"Gray, try not to lose your clothes here, because there is a chance that you will never get them back." Erza said. Gray nodded in understanding, trying to hide the fact that his shirt was already partially unbuttoned.

"So Flame Brain, know any history about this ship that you seem to be dying to explore?" Gray asked Natsu. Natsu looked as if he was waiting for someone to ask that question.

"I sure do! Make a right here guys." Natsu said as they changed directions before continuing. "Well, as you probably already know, this ship was, at first, a war ship that supplied air crafts during the battle between Fiore and Alvarez. After the war ended, they didn't know what to do with such a giant ship, so they decided to make it into a cruise ship. The reason that the ship is much smaller now is because when they were renovating the ship to be luxurious, they had to take down all of the weaponry and other stuff, and the ship lost over eleven million pounds.

"However, the cruise business only lasted for ten months because of the strange occurrences that happened. People had reported that they were being pushed and shoved, even though there was no one around them. Some people actually said that there had been some creepy messages written on the walls in blood, but when they blinked and looked at it again, it was gone. The legend is that some of the soldiers who were injured in the war and died on this ship have become restless, and now they have no choice but to haunt the place where they died, just hoping that they could get out of the misery that is not quite death, but not quite life." Natsu said, taking a dramatic pause. Lucy started to look very uncomfortable, and scooted even closer to Erza, who only looked the tiniest bit fazed by this. "I don't know the whole story, of course." Natsu said shrugging and then grinning sheepishly. "Some layout information, the ship has only 390 rooms, has two ballrooms, one main one and one smaller one, five decks, a _huge_ engine room, and weighs around 25,000 gross tons, whatever that means."

"A gross ton weighs 2240 pounds, making this ship," Erza though for just a few seconds. "56 million pounds." She stated, putting her hands on her hips. The others couldn't really expect anything else from the straight-A Titania Erza. Her brain was like a human calculator. It was the reason why she got a full scholarship into Fairy Tail University, apart from the fact that she excels at sports.

"You're _so cool!_ " Lucy muttered as she hugged Erza around the waist like a little sister would. It was hard to mistake the blush that had crawled up onto Erza's face, but she patted Lucy's golden hair adoringly, trying to rid her face of any signs of her being flustered.

"Hey guys! We're here!" Natsu announced as he ran forward, leaving the rest behind.

"Wait up, Ash Breath!" Gray shouted, running after him. Erza and Lucy shared a look, and a shrug, before running after them also.

The four of them finally entered the ballroom. At least, that's what it looked like. The wallpaper was torn, the wooden floor that was once polished was now scratched and dirty, and some of the windows were shattered, the remaining shards on the floor. Natsu looked up and noticed the crystal chandelier that dangled from the ceiling.

"Is there a light switch here or something?" Lucy asked apprehensively as she looked around with her flashlight.

"There should be." Gray said as he felt around the wall. "Oh! Here it is!" Gray said as he pulled a huge, old-fashioned crank that turned on the electricity for the gorgeous chandelier.

The worry that Lucy felt over the abandoned ship disappeared once she saw that. Even though the room itself had probably seen better days, the chandelier looked as if it was in perfect condition. Lucy smiled widely as she threw down her large bag and twirled slightly under the shimmering crystals, completely unaware of Natsu watching her with a content smile. He was just so happy that Lucy agreed to do this with him, even though he knew she must be scared to death, because he couldn't imagine any adventure without her by his side.

"So, should we ration the portions now?" Erza's voice broke into his thoughts. Lucy stopped gazing at the brilliant decor and nodded, sitting down on the wooden floor while the rest sat down near her so that they were in some sort of circle. She started unpacking the edible or drinkable contents of the bag, the rest of them doing the same. The next four or five minutes was spent splitting up the supplies. Natsu didn't bring much in the food department, but he made sure to bring three candles, one lighter, a pack of matches, and a blow horn.

"A blow horn!? Are you fricken serious?" Gray looked at Natsu incredulously.

Natsu just shrugged. "In case we lose each other." Natsu's eyes then went wide. "Shit, I forgot..." He was stopped when something hit the side of his head. He looked down in his lap to find the extra spicy chips that he liked. The ones he thought he forgot.

"I knew you would forget the one thing you couldn't live without." Lucy said with a sigh. Natsu just grinned and pulled her closer to him, hugging her tightly.

"Ugh, get a room!" Gray complained. Natsu and Lucy looked at each other, before looking at Gray and sticking their tongues out at him, and then laughing afterwards. Even Erza gave a light chuckle.

"Oh, I also brought some Advil and some bandages if we need them." Lucy said, taking those out of her bag.

"Okay, I think that we're set for these two nights. We'll stay here tonight and tomorrow night, and then head out at noon on Sunday morning. Sound like a plan?" Natsu asked. Everybody else nodded. "Cool, now let's do some exploring!"

"As long as that exploring involves finding a place where I'm supposed to piss, I'm all for it." Gray said standing up and stretching.

"Wait, w-we're not going s-separately, right?" Lucy asked, fear lacing in her tone.

"No, I think that it is best if we split up into teams of two. Gray, you're with Natsu, and Lucy and I are together." Erza ordered.

"Awwwwwww! But I want to be with Lu-" Erza gave him a glare. "I w-was just kidding." Natsu said as he swung his arm over Gray's now naked shoulders. "C'mon buddy! Let's go!" Natsu said as he literally dragged Gray out of the room in a break-neck pace.

"Those two are hopeless." Lucy said as she sighed. Lucy started to distribute the rations amongst the packs.

"Boys." Erza muttered. "So, Lucy. Where do you want to go first?" Erza asked as she saw Lucy stand up and dust her hands off.

"As long as we don't get separated, I don't really care where we go. But there is no way in _hell_ that I'm going down to the engine room at this time at night. Can we save that until the morning?" Lucy asked as she eyed Erza pleadingly.

Erza gave a soft smile as she patted the shorter girl's head. "Of course. I'm not really in the mood of going below deck anyway."

"Okay, then let's go." Lucy said as Erza led the way down the hallway opposite to the one Natsu went down. There was only one thought circulating through her mind right then.

 _I hope we get out alive._

* * *

"Are you done yet, stripper?" Natsu asked in an irritated voice as he stood outside the bathroom stalls. They had found one not too far away from the ballroom, meaning it was easy to get there and back in the middle of the night.

"Don't try to rush my pee!" Gray yelled from inside the stall. He heard Natsu groan outside and he rolled his eyes, already finishing and going to wash his hands. "Besides, you just want to rush this so you can get back to Lucy." He stated.

"Of course I do, I'm the one who's supposed to be paired up with her." He said, mumbling the last part.

"Dude...you're obsessed."

"I am not!"

"Don't even try to deny it Ash Brains!"

"Whatdya say, you Pervy Popsicle!?" Natsu yelled, butting heads with the other male.

Gray was about to retort, but a loud clap of thunder interrupted him, scaring both of the boys. They each put a hand on the other's shoulder, just to reassure themselves that they weren't alone. Once they realized what they were doing, they immediately pulled away from each other with disgusted looks. Natsu was about to say something really witty, ready to piss off Gray, but he stopped when he saw the terrified look on the other man's face. "Dude, what's up?" Gray just pointed a shaky finger behind him. Natsu hesitated at first, but then turned slowly towards the direction the Gray was pointing in.

'TRESPASSERS MUST DIE!' It said in big red letters. It was then that Natsu realized that the words were starting to drip a little bit, and Natsu's sensitive nose could recognize the scent anywhere.

"B-b-blood..." Natsu whispered as he backed even further away from the wall.

"W-was that there before?" Gray asked, stuttering a bit. Natsu just did a half-shrug, too scared to do anything right then.

Then, they heard a loud crash. It sounded like metal bowls falling onto the tiled floor, and it was coming from right behind them. They slowly turned, pointing their flashlights down the hall where the sound came from, only to see nothing. Gray raised his eyebrow and turned back to the message, only for his eyes to go wide.

The message was gone.

"Natsu, look at that!" He said, pointing back to the wall. Natsu looked, and his eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of their sockets. "Don't tell me we were just hallucinating." Gray said, looking at Natsu.

Natsu scoffed. "Right, we hallucinated the exact same thing.

"Well, how do you explain..." Gray didn't get to finish as they was another clap of thunder interrupting him again.

"I-I think we should go find Erza and Lucy. J-just to make sure that they aren't in trouble." Natsu said, slowly walking backwards.

"A-aye." Gray agreed as they both burst down the hallway together.

"Lucy! Erza!" They both screamed.

* * *

Erza was on her phone, and she just couldn't take her eyes off of it, so Lucy decided to lean over and see what she was doing.

She was texting Jellal.

"Erza, are you flexting?" Erza gave her a weird look. "Flirt texting." Lucy explained. Erza flushed red.

"Maaaaybe." She said, drawing out the first vowel.

"We get reception over here?" Lucy asked, holding up her phone as well.

"Apparently." Erza said as she put away her phone and started to look around again.

They were in a room where many items were covered by white sheets. So far, they had seen the outlines of a child's crib, a bookcase, and many paintings. However, neither of them were willing to lift the covers.

They were just looking at the outlines of all the merchandise when Erza stumbled on a small box. It was about the size of both her hands and was painted a beautiful rose color, but some of the paint was chipping off. There was also an intricate design of teal and green on the front. On the side of the box, there was a small golden crank.

"Hey, Lucy. Take a look at this." Erza called Lucy over as she started to turn the crank. Lucy came over to Erza to see what she was doing. The top of the box suddenly sprung up, the inside emitting a small golden light and a beautiful melody. It was the light chime of bells and what sounded like a piano in the background. It would be something that you would play to children when they were having trouble sleeping.

The weird thing was that the noise emitting from the box was so calming and peaceful, that Lucy couldn't help but get drawn into the box, he expression lifeless and dazed. Erza had a similar expression on as she looked at the music box. The golden light was very warming and she couldn't help but lean her face even closer to get more of the warmth.

But two annoyingly loud voices broke them from their trance.

"Lucy! Erza!" Natsu and Gray yelled as the ran down the hallway towards them. Erza immediately snapped the music box shut and put it back where it belonged, where it sat, forgotten.

"What are you two on about now?" Erza asked in a demanding tone. Gray stopped just in front of her, panting and out of breath, but Natsu raced passed her, tackling Lucy into a bear hug.

"Natsu, are you scared? Aw, poor baby." Lucy teased as she pet his hair. Natsu just glared at her.

"Don't say that as if you aren't shaking right now, weirdo." He retorted.

Lucy just blushed and looked down. "Shut up." She said, but her voice was muffled because she was digging her face into his chest.

"Seriously, what happened?" Erza asked Gray.

"Can we talk about this on our way back to the ballroom? I think that we've done enough exploring for tonight, and it's," Gray paused as he checked the time on his phone. "One twenty-five in the morning. We should get some sleep." Gray suggested.

"Good idea. Natsu? Lucy?" Erza asked.

"I'm all for the idea." Lucy said as she gave a light yawn.

"Yeah, we'll continue this tomorrow morning." Natsu said, still holding Lucy to his chest.

"Very well, let's go." Erza then led the way back to where their supplies were, unaware of the three teens cowering behind her in fear.

When they reached the ballroom, they were all relieved to find that all of their stuff was where they had left it. "Alright, let's get ready for bed." Gray said as he closed the door to the ballroom and locked it. Natsu went around and locked all of the other doors.

Lucy couldn't help but get the chilling feeling that they weren't keeping something out, but trapping something in. Lucy just shrugged off the thought, it was probably just her being paranoid.

Lucy took her bag and pulled out her red, white, and green striped fleece pajamas that she got for Christmas and a blood red hoodie. She shrugged out of her jean shorts, not caring if Gray or Natsu were there because both of them had the decency to look away and they had seen her naked on many occasions before, so it doesn't bother them. She slipped on her pajama pants and threw the hoodie on top of the tank top that she was already wearing. She spread out her extra large sleeping bad, because she knew that one way or another, Natsu would end up climbing into her sleeping bag and that would be super uncomfortable if it was any smaller.

She turned around to see that Erza was dressed in some sleep shorts and a _very_ tight tank top. Erza Scarlet had the body that every girl dreamed of, and that was only one of the things that made Erza so amazing.

She saw that Gray had already taken off his shirt and put on a pair of basketball shorts and Natsu had changed into a muscle t-shirt and loose black sweatpants. These boys also had bodies of gods. They had no idea how much other girls drooled over them for their good looks and athletic abilities.

And in the end, Lucy was just Lucy.

She had already accepted that fact.

But Lucy shook those thoughts off, because they really didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that really mattered was surviving two nights on a deserted, possibly haunted ship with no help or take-out food in a fifteen mile radius. There was that one convenience store, but she would rather not go back there again. The man at the counter was a total perv.

Not feeling too tired anymore, Lucy decided to get up and look around the ballroom, trying to memorize anything that stands out that she might have missed. That was when she saw it, a tear in the wallpaper. It looked like there was something written behind there, but she couldn't make it out.

"Gray!" She called, knowing he was the tallest of the group.

"What's up, Lu?" Gray asked, coming to her side.

"You see that torn wallpaper up there?" Gray nodded. "Can you jump and pull that down so it rips?" Lucy asked.

"Sure thing, Lucy." Gray said as he stepped back a little and took a running start as he jumped. He grabbed the torn piece with ease and pulled it down with him, creating a large seam in the wall.

"Thanks, Gray." Lucy said. Gray smiled at her, mumbling a 'no problem'

"Lucy, why did you do that?" Erza asked, but Lucy couldn't hear her because she was already digging her fingers under the torn wallpaper and pulling it, revealing the writing that she knew was under there. By then, the two other teens were also at Lucy's side, watching the wall as it revealed letter after letter until it spelt one word.

Chandelier.

It was written in some kind of black marker, and it was a little faded probably due to the fact that it has been years since that had been written. Lucy turned her gaze to the fantastic chandelier, eying it suspiciously.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Natsu asked, scratching his head.

"Maybe it was a reminder for the construction workers that they had to work on the chandelier? And then they covered it up with wallpaper to make it unnoticeable." Gray suggested.

"That sounds like it makes the most sense, but we shouldn't dwell on it. Let's get some rest, it's already two o'clock." Erza said as she walked back to her sleeping bag. Lucy turned and looked at her.

"Erza, I don't think that it's a good idea to put your sleeping bag directly under the chandelier." Lucy stated.

"Why?" Erza asked, looking up.

"I don't know, I just have a feeling that it isn't safe." Lucy said. Erza looked at her strangely, but then shrugged her shoulders, moving her sleeping bag next to Gray's. Lucy then climbed into her sleeping bag and Natsu settled down next to her, turning his back to her.

"Let me know if you're cold, 'k?" Natsu asked. Lucy just nodded sleepily as she laid her head down on her soft pillow.

"Good night Natsu, good night Erza, good night Gray." She murmured sleepily.

"Good night Lucy." They all replied.

They all woke up at 6:02 in the morning...to the chandelier falling and crashing into the ground, shattering into pieces.

 **Okay, so I finished this chapter this morning, and I was planning on posting it until I thought: 'I'll just post it later for the people who didn't read the first chapter.  
**

 **We get an insight on the character's personalities and what they are good at, which really shouldn't surprise anyone because I'm not writing them to be very OOC at all. I hope you guys like how I've written them, and if there is anything I didn't do right, feel free to tell me.**

 **You better have a good day wherever you are! I'm watching you!**

 **Leave a review if you want to, I'm not going to make you feel like you have to. Only do it if you really want to, because I would really appreciate the feedback! Thanks you guys!  
**


	3. Crankshafts

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Usually, only Lucy was up at six or six thirty a.m., and that was because she was usually practicing for gymnastics. Even she likes to sleep in every once in a while.

The situation made that impossible.

Before any of the teens were in their conscious state, they heard the loud crash and glass shattering. They all woke up, alert and aware. Natsu had thrown his arms in front of Lucy in case there was any danger lurking around, Gray had gotten into a battle position, and Erza took out a pocket knife that she always kept with her.

Lucy had stepped out from Natsu's arms to look at the damage that had been done to the once crystal masterpiece. Lucy slipped on her sneakers to make sure that she wouldn't step on any broken glass on the floor. The glass shards had, luckily, not touched any of them, so none of them were scathed, but there were millions of shards all over the ground that made a crushing sound every time Lucy's shoe stepped on them.

"Lucy...how did you know?" Erza asked as she slipped on her combat boots and joined Lucy where she was standing.

"Know what?" Lucy asked her, confused.

"Last night, you told me that I shouldn't sleep under the chandelier. How did you know that it would break?" Erza answered.

Lucy scrunched her brows in deep thought. She _hadn't_ known, she just knew that something was off. "I didn't know. I just had a feeling that the chandelier wasn't safe." Lucy mumbled, still in deep thought.

"Well, it's because of that feeling that I'm still alive." She said as she reached over and gave Lucy a huge hug, making her gasp for air. "Thank you Lucy." Erza said.

"A-anytime Erza." Lucy replied, still trying to catch her breath after the woman's death grip was released. "Besides, that could have just been a coincidence. I mean, the chandelier is pretty old, I bet the chains just broke on it." Lucy theorized.

Natsu got up from where he was laying down, walking to the chandelier with a blank expression. But just a moment later, he whooped.

"That was awesome! Come out and fight me ghost!" Natsu shouted as his loud voice vibrated off of the walls of the ballroom. Gray and Lucy looked at him with a horrified expression.

"He's going to get us all killed." Gray muttered.

"Agreed." Lucy said with wide, fearful eyes.

"Natsu, I think it is best to not taunt these ghosts at this hour. It's only six in the morning, what if they want to sleep? The whole point of them being here is to try and find eternal sleep and they can't do that if you're yelling at them to fight them!" Erza scolded.

"Oh." Natsu said as his eyes widened in realization. "It's okay ghosts, I'll fight you later." Natsu said as his voice dropped down into a whisper.

"Guys, you can't be serious. Y-you're saying that as if these ghosts are really here. They're not...right?" Lucy said as her eyes darted from Natsu, to Gray, to Erza. They all didn't know what to tell her. "Oh, that's nice." Lucy said as she gave a small smile, but started to hyperventilate.

"Luce. Hey Lucy, look at me." Natsu said seriously, grabbing her face to try and stop her breathing. Her fearful eyes looked at him, and he couldn't help but soften his features. "It's gonna be okay. Nothing is going to happen, alright? And we're always going to be with you. Stop worrying, it'll give you wrinkles." Natsu said as he traced one of the lines on her scrunched up face. At least she had stopped hyperventilating.

"Alright, but do you really think that it is safe to stay on this ship?" Lucy asked.

"There's always a possibility that the chain did just break on it's own. And there is nothing more exciting than being in an old place. Right boys?" Erza replied.

"Right, and as long as we stick together, nothing's going to go wrong." Gray said. Gray was lucky that Lucy hadn't heard him when he muttered a little 'I hope' under his breath.

"Is that why you two came barreling down the hall, crying like babies last night?" Erza asked, trying to lighten up the mood. Gray and Natsu unconsciously shivered.

"It's not our fault! There was writing on the wall! In blood! And then there was a huge crash, and we looked and when we turned back, BAM!, it was gone." Natsu said, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, and the thunder did nothing to help the atmosphere." Gray said. Lucy and Erza shot each other weird looks.

"What thunder?" Lucy asked.

"How could you _not_ hear it? It was so loud, I swore that I was going to go deaf." Natsu said, rubbing his ears to further make his point.

"The only sounds that we heard were the creaking of the floorboards and the sound of the music box." Lucy said.

"But there was something very strange about that music box, but I couldn't exactly figure out what." Erza stated.

"Well, it's not going to do us any good if we keep thinking about it." Gray stated. "Where are we going to explore today?" He asked.

"I was thinking about going to the engine room at the very bottom of the ship. There is something super creepy there that I want to tell you guys about." Natsu said as he gave a sly smile.

"Yeah, because more creepiness is just what we need." Lucy grumbled sarcastically, but Natsu heard her loud and clear. He lifted her a bit of the ground and started tickling her stomach, making her giggle. The other two just looked at the scene and smiled. Natsu was always the one that was able to lighten up Lucy's mood. "Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!" She said quickly while laughing. Natsu finally let her down. "Okay, let me get changed into my regular clothes first, then we can go down into the engine room." They all nodded in agreement.

"Also, I think it would be a good idea to relocate our base, seeing as this one has glass shards all over it and it's dangerous to be here, so take your packs with you." Erza stated as she also left to get ready.

Lucy ran the small comb that she brought through her hair, grunting at a particular knot that was giving her a lot of trouble. She then fish-tail braided her hair so it hung down her back and out of her face.

Natsu was sitting next to her on the sleeping bag, taking off his night shirt and putting on a new one. It always bothered Lucy how his hair stood so spiked and perfect without him even doing anything, but she never voiced her thoughts because she knows for a fact that he would keep rubbing it in her face how much better his hair is than hers, more than he already does now.

"Natsu, if I die today," Lucy starts dramatically, making him look at her and roll his eyes. "I want you to know, that you are my best friend, and I love you more than anyone." She says, trying to keep in fake tears. "And that one time twenty bucks from your wallet disappeared and you blamed it on Gajeel, that was actually me." She said, trying to stifle her laughter.

"WHAT!?" Natsu yelled. He grabbed her shoulders and tugged her into a headlock. "You little thief!" Natsu said as he gave his best friend a noogie.

Lucy couldn't stop laughing. "Natsu, this was three years ago, chill out!" She said as she pushed him off of her.

"This gives me more of an incentive to scare the crap out of you, y'know?" Natsu asked her with raised eyebrows.

"Oh no." Lucy grimaced.

"Oh yeah." Natsu said as he smirked.

"Will you two stop flirting with each other so we can leave?" Natsu scowled at Gray, but just shook his head and got up.

"We weren't flirting, you jackass!" Lucy yelled at him. Gray scoffed.

"Alright, ready to go Luce?" Natsu asked.

Lucy just finished up rolling her sleeping bag as he said this. "Not really, but that's not going to stop you from dragging me down there anyway."

Natsu wiped a nonexistent tear from his eyes. "You know me so well." He said, reaching a hand out to pull her off the ground.

"I've been with you my whole life, so I better." She said, taking his outstretched hand. The two then maneuvered themselves around the broken glass of the chandelier to go join Gray and Erza in the main hall. They walked down the carpeted floor until they came to an intersection.

"So uh...does anyone actually know how to get to the engine room?" Gray asked. We all turned our gaze to Natsu who was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Well, I was hoping that there would be a sign here or something. Maybe there is a map around here or something that we could use." Erza gave him a deathly glare, but before she could do anything, Lucy came to Natsu's rescue.

"Or we could just go through the door that says 'Engine Room! Authorized personnel only!'" Lucy pointed out as she jerked her thumb in the direction of the big, rustic door that she was talking about.

"That could work." Gray said as he walked over. "Only one problem," he said as he wiggled the handle. "it's locked."

"Move over." Erza said coolly. She walked over to the door and swung her pack in front of her, taking out a personal-sized sledgehammer. She banged on the handle repeatedly until the handle broke off. Then she proceeded to kick the door open. She put the sledgehammer back into her backpack and dusted off her hands. "There, problem solved." She said.

"Erza...where'd you get that?" Lucy asked, a little bit afraid.

"You didn't expect me to come here unarmed did you?" Erza asked before she walked through the door and down what looked like five flights of metal stairs. "Come, let's go." Neither of the boys nor Lucy wanted to argue with her.

They quickly descended down the flights of stairs, the air getting hotter and thicker the deeper they went. Of course, Gray thought that it was the perfect time to strip off his shirt.

Once they had finally reached the bottom, there was a long hallway of stone floors and paint-chipped walls that led deeper into the ship. There was a sign right next to them that had an arrow pointing that way with the words 'Engine Room'."

"See, that wasn't so hard!" Natsu said optimistically. "Come on, there is something cool that I heard about that I want to show you." He said as he led the way. Gray and Erza followed without a problem, but Lucy was a couple paces back, taking cautious steps in case she would get jumped or something. She checked out her surroundings while she did this. There were cobwebs along the walls and occasional bugs scurrying across the floor. Lucy shivered and slowed down her steps even more. You can't really blame her, bugs bother her. But there was one thing that was tacked on the wall that the others must have missed, but it caught Lucy's eye immediately.

"Hey, Erza! Look at this!" Lucy called. She ripped the piece of paper off the walls. She felt Erza's presence near her and she showed her the old piece of paper. It was a missing poster for a little girl around five or six years old named Asuka Connell. The picture was faded and some of the lines were blurred, but you could still make out the happy face of the child.

"Interesting, but what's so great about it?" Erza questioned.

"Look at what's in her hands." Erza looked down from the cute little girl's face to see what Lucy was talking about, and her eyes widened.

In her little hands, was the music box that they had found earlier.

"Look familiar?" Lucy asked.

"So that music box we found earlier was actually hers? The missing child's?" Erza asked, not taking her eyes off of the paper.

"Apparently so." Lucy clarified.

"Is something wrong girls?" Gray asked as he walked up to them, wondering what was taking them so long.

"No, everything is fine. Let's continue and hope that Natsu hasn't been stupid enough to get himself lost already." Erza said, starting back down the hallway. Gray followed her shortly after, leaving Lucy alone once more. She took one last look at the girl on the poster before gently setting it down and following her two other friends.

When the hallway was just about to finish, leading to the engine room, Erza stumbled a little bit, which was largely out of her character considering she was so graceful. She turned around to face Gray and punched an unsuspecting Gray in the cheek, sending him backwards.

"Goddammit Erza! What the hell was that?" Gray shouted as he fell to the dirty ground holding his cheek.

"That was for shoving me!" Erza said as she glared.

"Who in their right mind would shove you!?" He said, standing up but still caressing his cheek. Erza gave him an even deadlier glare, and Lucy saw this as her opportunity to step in.

"Erza, I was behind him the whole time. I can assure you that he didn't shove you." She said, putting her arms in front of Gray as some sort of barrier.

Erza's glare softened when she saw Lucy, but it didn't vanish completely. "Very well, I shall believe you." Erza gave a curt nod before continuing on.

"Whew!" Gray said as he wiped some sweat off his brow. "Thanks, Lu." He said gratefully.

"No problem." She said, her eyes training on his now bruising cheek. "Would you like some Advil?" She offered.

Gray nodded, taking out his water bottle. "You're a life saver, honestly." He said, popping two Advil in his mouth and downing it with water. "But now I have to go through Flame Brain's stupid teasing." Gray grumbled.

"I can try to keep him distracted if you want." Lucy said. Gray grinned and ruffled her hair before they both continued into the engine room as well. It was filled with old and rusted machinery, smelling a lot like oil. The air was hot and steamy, and Lucy had to take off the light jacket that she threw on, starting to fan her face. The floor had changed from solid stone to a rusty grate, some parts in better shape than others.

Natsu was in the middle of the room looking over a railing that led to what looked like a bottomless pit. He looked over to see that Gray and Lucy had just arrived. "What took you guys so lo-Oh my God, Stripper! What happened to your face!?" Natsu asked as he burst out laughing. Gray looked like he was about to tackle him with the intent of killing, but Lucy held him back, tensely walking over to Natsu.

"Natsu? Can we please get this over with? If this place is this creepy during the day, I don't really wanna see it during the night." Lucy told him, trying to distract him from Gray. It wasn't just a distraction, though. She really wanted to just hear what Natsu had to say and GTFO because she really didn't like it down there.

"Yes, Natsu. Tell us of the legend that you heard of this place." Erza demanded, still looking at some of the pressurized machines.

"Alright, come look at this." Natsu said pointing over the railing. The four teens went to stand near it, looking at the lower ground. There were huge cylinders that looked like spiked steam rollers down there. They were obviously not running now, but they looked like they could power something pretty heavy, which probably explains why they are on such as ship as this one. "Those are crankshafts. They were part of the ship's main power source, and they were super hard to control. You couldn't have them moving too fast or too slow, otherwise the ship won't move correctly." Natsu explained.

"Those are actually really cool." Lucy blurted out without thinking. However, it was true. Lucy found them really cool.

Natsu grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. "See? I knew you would come to appreciate this ship." He said toothily. Lucy just rolled her eyes, leaning into him a little bit more to try to get some of his warmth. "Anyway, that isn't the cool part. There was a story that I heard that happened in this very room." He started. The four teens sat on the grated ground, which wasn't too comfortable, while Natsu told his story. Lucy brought out a pack of cashews to eat like popcorn while Natsu talked. Eating nuts always seemed to calm her down somewhat. "Alright, so an engine room has a lot of people working to maintain the equipment and make sure that nothing is damaged or broken. Thirty-five years ago, there was a man working down here with his coworkers. Everything was in perfect condition at the time, or so they thought.

"While said man was making sure that the pressure levels were stable, a pipe randomly burst, sending hot steam into the man's face. In a desperate attempt to get away, he stumbled away from the pipe, not noticing the railing that oversaw the crankshafts right behind him. His coworkers rushed to his aid, but it was too late. He had already fallen over the edge." Lucy was really munching on those cashews now.

"He fell right into the moving crankshafts, instantly dying from impact. However, the crankshafts still kept turning, crushing the man deeper into them. The workers couldn't stop the cranks because that would make the whole ship lose power. But luckily, there was an island that they were not planning on stopping to near by. Once they stopped, they unfortunately had to try to pull the bloody man out from there."

"Aw man, that's nasty." Gray said, scrunching up his face.

"It was. Even more unfortunately, because the man was so deeply lodged in the crankshafts, they had to literally cut up his body to get him out. However, some people said that the crankshafts would often stop on their own while they were at sea, meaning that the men had to quickly self-crank the ship until they started working again. It is believed that a piece of the man's soul is still there, haunting the crankshafts because the soul can't get out." Natsu finished, pleased with the way he told the story.

"I take back what I said about the crankshafts being cool." Lucy squeaked, finally putting her nuts away.

"Oh, there's also one more thing." Natsu said. Directly after, he screamed in Lucy's ear, making her shriek in fright. Natsu just burst out laughing after that.

"Natsu! You're such a bastard!" Lucy yelled as she pushed him over, trying to calm her heart. Natsu just couldn't stop laughing until Erza gave him the deathly glare, making him sit up straight and shut up immediately.

"So, you guys want to do some exploring on this floor?" Gray asked.

"Hell yeah! I bet I can find more supernatural thingies than you!" Natsu said, pointing at Gray.

"What the hell is a 'supernatural thingy'?" Gray argued.

Lucy and Erza just rolled their eyes and got off the ground to do their own thing. Erza went back to the machines that she was looking at before, and Lucy started back down the hall towards the missing poster. It was weird. She knew for a fact that there was something off about it, but she couldn't figure out what.

While she was staring at the poster, there was a small explosion in the engine room, covering the whole place with smoke. Lucy folded the poster and put it in her bag so she could look at it later. She looked towards the engine room to see that most of the smoke had lifted. Gray came running out, his eyes wide and fearful. He looked a bit relieved when he saw Lucy, but his expression didn't change.

"Gray, what's wrong?" Lucy asked, grasping his shoulder.

"It's Erza! She disappeared!"

* * *

 **Hello wonderful readers, I sincerely hoped that you enjoyed that chapter. As I said before, even though the idea of the story was originally inspired on the Queen Mary's ship, the incidents that happened are from my own imagination. Trust me, I had to sit in front of my little black journal on my desk until three in the morning, trying to come up with cool incidents that had a meaning. I have already planned out what the story is going to be like, so you don't have to worry too much about me getting writer's block.**

 **Gray x Lucy is my BrOTP if you haven't noticed. I just feel that Gray would make a good big brother.**

 **I would love to hear what you guys thought about this story! So if you could drop a review, that would be awesome! Of course, I'm not going to force you to. Do whatever you want.**

 **As always, I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are! And if you're not, try thinking of happy things. Um, ponies, rainbows, unicorns, cupcakes , cookies, (insert something that makes you happy)!**


	4. No Way Out

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"W-what do you mean she's _gone?"_ Lucy asked, fear lacing in her tone.

"Well, one second she was standing literally right next to me and the next thing I know, there was an explosion and by the time the smoke had lifted, she was gone!" Gray said frantically, dragging her inside the room. "Natsu's looking for her now. You want to split up and search?" Gray asked.

Lucy nodded. "We'll have a better chance of finding her that way." She said.

Sure, this place might scare her and she doesn't want to be alone, but Erza was first priority now, and Lucy could look passed her fear to make sure that she's safe.

* * *

It wasn't very clear to Erza what had happened.

She and Gray were checking out some of the old machines and how they compared to the ones of the modern day time period. However, then there was a small exploding sound. Thinking it was Natsu damaging something again, she turned around, only to see that Natsu was also next to her, covering his face to make sure none of the smoke gets in there.

Then what caused the explosion?

This question didn't run through her head when she heard a distinct sound that was quiet yet loud at the same time. It was the same tune that had come from the music box that she had seen earlier.

Erza couldn't didn't even comprehend that she was already walking towards the sound, away from Natsu and Gray. Erza just felt like she needed to get to the music box, like it was calling to her.

But she also felt like a puppet being pulled by strings towards it.

* * *

Lucy raced back up the metal stairs after she and Gray separated, deciding that checking the second floor would be just as important. However, the ship was so huge, so Erza could be anywhere.

 _I'll never find her._ Lucy thought as she ran down another hall. It was the hall that led to the room that she and Erza had visited the first night while on this ship.

And this was the exact hall that Erza was walking down.

Lucy gave a big sigh of relief. "Erza!" She yelled out, trying to get her friend's attention. It seems as if Erza didn't hear her. Now that Lucy saw it, Erza was walking very slowly, almost like a zombie, down the hall. Lucy ran up to her and got in front of her. "Erza? What's wro-" She couldn't finish her sentence as Erza had already walked passed her, as if she wasn't even there. She ran in front of the girl again, grabbing her shoulders to try and get her to stop, but Erza was pushing through, not exactly forcing Lucy away, but more like trying to walk through knee-length mud. Lucy struggled to keep Erza in place. It was then that Lucy looked into her eyes. They weren't the kind and motherly brown ones that she had grown to respect. No, they were lifeless. Almost as if she was an empty vessel. "Natsu! Gray! Help me!" She yelled, still struggling to keep Erza back. She just hoped that the to boys were close enough to hear her.

Lucky for her, they were. Natsu and Gray came barreling down two different hallways, looking for Lucy because of her cry for help. When they both saw Lucy trying to wrestle Erza back, they had confused looks on their faces. "Lu, what are you doing?" Gray asked.

Lucy looked at them frantically. "Help me! Erza's possessed or something!" Lucy yelled. They were nearing the room where all of the old items were.

Gray quickly went behind Erza and tried to pull her back, but even with his strength, they were unable to stop the fierce Titania. "Natsu! Help!" Gray shouted.

Natsu licked his lips and thought for a moment, before finally deciding what to do. "I've got it!" Natsu said as he ran a few steps in front of Erza. He brought out his blow horn and did the weirdest thing possible. He started to sing. "Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba~!" He sang the line from the Lion King. Lucy and Gray cringed because it was so loud. The echo started to bounce off the walls of the abandoned ship.

Lucy felt Erza lessen her struggles, and she knew that she was waking up. "Keep it up, Natsu! It's working!"

"Nants ingonyama bag-" He started singing again, but couldn't finish once Erza had finally woken up, broken out of Lucy and Gray's grasp, and hit Natsu over the head with his blow horn.

"You're so irritating! How many times have I told you not to sing loudly!" Erza scolded. Natsu withered under her fierce stare.

Lucy and Gray just turned to each other with wide eyes, and then back to Erza. "ERZA IS BACK!" They both shouted, making Erza look at them. She was then tackled into a hug by them. Even Gray put aside his fear for her because he was just glad that his friend was okay. Well, there was also the fact that without her, nobody would be around to protect them.

Gray was the first one to get off Erza. Lucy was still hugging her around the waist, her face in her collarbone. Erza was stroking her hair lovingly. "Hey Ash Breath, how did you know that your horrible singing would wake Erza up?" Gray asked.

"Shut up Popsicle! My singing isn't horrible." He said as he scowled at Gray. "And I know Erza hates it when she hears loud noises when she is asleep. So because she looked like she was sleep walking, that was the first thing that came to mind."

"What the hell happened Erza?" Gray asked, turning to her.

Erza looked just as confused as everyone else. "I am not really sure. I just heard the sound of the music and the next thing I knew, I'm here."

"Wait...what music?" Natsu asked.

"Didn't you hear it? It sounded like a lullaby that would be put in a music box."

"No, I didn't hear a thing. The only thing that I heard was the explosion and the sound of coughing. What did you do anyway, Flame Brain?" Gray asked, turning to Natsu.

"Hey! I didn't do anything! I was just beside you and Erza when that happened!" Natsu yelled at him, putting his blow horn away in his pack.

"Can someone please give me the prognosis of the situation?" Erza asked, getting a bit irritated at her ignorance.

"We're not too sure either. When the smoke of the explosion lifted, you were just gone. Lucy saw you walking down the hall and tried to get your attention, but you were unresponsive. Kind of like a zombie." Gray explained.

"Yeah, it's almost as if you were possessed." Natsu said, grinning. _What is there to grin about?_ Lucy thought.

"Isn't this enough of a reason to leave?" Lucy whined. "First the chandelier breaks, almost killing us, then there is an explosion, then Erza gets possessed! I told you we shouldn't have come here."

"I agree with Lucy. This place is way too dangerous." Gray said.

"Oh come on, guys! This just makes it more fun! Just one more night, please." Natsu begged.

"Natsu, we are risking the welfare of each other by staying here. I think it is best if we leave." Erza said, not leaving any room for argument.

Natsu really _really_ wanted to argue, but since it was three against one, he could only breathe a heavy sigh. "Fine, let's go." He grumbled. He swung his arm over Lucy and sulked into her shoulder. She pet his hair, trying to comfort him.

The group made their way to the main deck, ready to smell the fresh air and feel the sun on their faces. But when they got there, they were not hit by the blinding light of the sun, but the cool breeze and the sea of fog.

"That's weird, the weather channel said it would be sunny today." Gray mumbled.

Erza scowled. "You can never trust that. One time the weather channel said that it would be only partially cloudy on my fifth birthday, so I decided to have my birthday in the park. But it was actually a downpour, ruining my precious strawberry cake!" Erza said, a deathly aura enveloping her.

"Okay, the weather channel is screwed up! Let's just go!" Lucy said, eager to get out of there and take a nice warm bath or something.

"We can't see the harbor. Maybe I should go down first. I'll call you down when I get on the ground." Natsu said, grabbing onto one of the ropes.

"Be careful Natsu!" Lucy called. Natsu shot her a caring smile before descending down the rope. The other three waited patiently for Natsu to give a signal, but after five minutes of hearing nothing, they started to get worried.

"Hey Flame Brain, did you reach the ground yet?" Gray called over the side of the ship. No answer. But there was a sound that they did hear.

Screaming.

And it was coming from the sky.

The screaming started to get louder and louder, and the three teens tried to back as far away from it as possible. But before anyone could really comprehend what it was, Natsu fell, face flat, on the deck, groaning at the pain that the fall had just caused him.

"NATSU!?" Lucy and Gray screamed. Erza just looked at him with wide eyes.

"Whoa, how did I get up here?" Natsu asked, looking around.

"That's what we want to know." Erza said. "How did you end up falling from the sky?"

Lucy went over to help Natsu stand up, dusting him off and making sure he wasn't too hurt. "I don't know. I was climbing down the rope, but then I suddenly felt that the rope was gone, and then I just started falling. I couldn't really see anything because of this dense fog." Natsu said as he shrugged.

"Hang on a minute." Gray said as he walked to the edge of the ship. He didn't even grab onto a rope before he just jumped off the railing. Lucy left Natsu's side as she went too the railing.

"Gray!" She shouted, hearing her voice echo.

A moment later, Gray came falling out of the sky as well.

"It seems as if there is a force that is stopping us from leaving." Era said, a hand on her chin.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Are you saying...that we're stuck here?" Lucy asked frantically.

"It seems so."

"It's no big deal. Why don't we just call the police or something?" Natsu asked.

"And when they start to question why we were at a place that was off limits, then what would we say?" Gray asked, getting off the ground.

"And besides, there's no signal anyway." Erza said, holding up her phone.

"There's gotta be another way out. I'm going to go look." Gray said coolly as he walked back down the hallway they came from.

"I'm going to follow him to make sure that he is okay. You two, stay together, got it?" Erza ordered Natsu and Lucy. They nodded frantically. "Good. I shall see you later."

Lucy felt as if her life was flashing before her eyes. She never got to finish her novel to give to Levy, she was never able to become an Olympic gymnast, she was never able to...

"Yo Luce, you okay?" Natsu asked, interrupting her thoughts. Lucy turned to him.

"How can you be so calm? We're stuck on a deserted ship that has strange occurrences with limited food and water!" Lucy yelled.

"Hey, we'll pull through this, we always do." Natsu said, trying to lift her spirits.

"Man, I don't want to be here anymore." Lucy said, almost to the point of crying. She was then enveloped in a hug by none other than Natsu. His arms were tightly around her as he tucked her head under his chin. She slowly raised her arms and wrapped them around his waist, squeezing him tightly.

"Stop worrying Lucy. Don't worry, nothing bad's gonna happen, alright? Just stay with me, and I'll make sure nothing will get you." Natsu said, giving her a light kiss on the top of her head. Lucy instantly relaxed in his hold, savoring the scent of the woods that emitted off Natsu.

"Thanks Natsu." She said as she nuzzled her face deeper into his chest, unaware of the slight blush that made it's way up to his face. They broke their embrace and Natsu leaned down a little so that they could be eye to eye.

"No problem. Now let's go back to the engine room, weirdo." He said with his boyish grin.

That sweet moment that they shared instantly vanished from Lucy's mind. "Wait, why are we going down there?" She asked with wide eyes.

"Obviously I want to see what caused that explosion, duh." Natsu said, taking her hand and bolting down the hallway.

"Wait, I never agreed to this!" Lucy said, but did nothing to pull out of his hold.

"You don't have to! I know you would've followed me anyway."

Sometimes, she hates that he knows her so well.

 **Hello! So yes, that was a shorter chapter and I'm really sorry about that. My computer went down yesterday and I couldn't type from my phone. Speaking of which, I don't even know where my phone is. Eh, I don't use it too much anyway.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. You can start to see a little of the NaLu popping up. However, that will just be thrown in there subtly because this is still a mystery story and I don't want to set off track from that with some cheesy romance if you get what I mean.**

 **Hugs and kisses to all of those who reviewed. Thank you so much for your support guys!**

 **Have an awesome day wherever you are! Bye~!**


	5. Soul Searching

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"Isn't an unexplained explosion a good reason to _not_ be down here?" Lucy asked as Natsu dragged her back towards the engine room.

"Naw, explosions are cool!" Natsu said as he gave his carefree grin that made Lucy roll her eyes. She checked her phone again. Still no signal.

As they entered the engine room, Lucy became immediately aware of the chill that ran through the air. _That's weird. It was hot a couple hours ago._ Lucy thought, but decided not to think about it for her own peace of mind. Natsu immediately ran towards where he thought the explosion was, leaving Lucy to explore alone. It wasn't like he was out of hearing range, so she could hear if something happened to him and vice versa.

Lucy had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to be looking for. She took her time to memorize how high the ceiling was compared to her, how many grills there were on the grate, or just anything really to get her mind away from something bad that is just bound to happen. So, to keep herself occupied, she went to the crankshafts. And that was when she saw it.

"Natsu!" Lucy screamed. Natsu came running to her side not even a second after she called. She pointed down to the crankshafts, and he looked at what was written there.

Unlike the other times that there was writing on the wall, this wasn't written with a marker or (what looked like) blood. This writing was scraped into the metal exterior of the wall. And the hand writing seemed almost...childish, like someone who hasn't really learned how to write properly. It said something that, also unlike the other times, Lucy couldn't make sense of.

 _Music Captures the Soul_

Natsu scratched his head. "What is it with these ghosts and writing stuff on the walls?" Natsu asked.

"I'm pretty sure they can't just walk up to us and say what they want. Besides, how do you know we just didn't see this message earlier. We don't know if ghosts wrote it." Natsu shot her an are-you-kidding look. Lucy sighed in defeat. "Okay, I was just trying to convince myself." Natsu wrapped an arm around her and brought her to his chest so he could comfort her.

"It's okay. They haven't done anything particularly bad to us, so they might be nice ghosts."

"A chandelier dropped on us." Lucy deadpanned, making Natsu sweat drop.

"Anyway," Natsu said, trying to change the subject. "if they are trying to communicate with us, then what does 'music captures the soul' mean?" Natsu asked.

"I'm...not sure." Lucy said quietly, leaning over the railing even more. Before she could get any further, she was pulled back by Natsu.

"Careful, go any further and you'll fall off the railing." He said cautiously.

"Oh, I didn't even notice. Thank you." She said gratefully. "So, did you figure out what caused that explosion?" Lucy asked.

"I didn't really get a chance to check before you called me." He said sheepishly.

"Oh, uh, sorry." Lucy said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Come on let's check." Lucy said as she and Natsu walked over in the direction of the explosion. "But Natsu?"

"Yeah Luce?"

"If it just so happens that we see a ghost, I'm pushing your ass down and bolting out of here." She said with fake seriousness. She would never mean that literally.

Natsu glared. "I see how it is." Natsu said dramatically. Lucy rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder a little.

They finally got to the place where the explosion was. It seems that some of the smoke had still not cleared from the area. The ground had changed from it's grated texture to a metal-plank flooring that were a little dented with the explosion and the walls were also burnt. One had even seemed to collapse.

"So...what exactly are we looking for?" Lucy asked.

"Anything that looks or smells like some kind of gasoline or some steam leaks or something. I don't know! You're the smart one!" Natsu said exasperatedly.

Lucy just shook her head. "For an explosion of that small size, I doubt there was any gasoline involved." She said, unconsciously putting her hands on her hips.

"Smart ass." Natsu muttered.

"Underachiever." Lucy muttered back.

They both stuck their tongues out at each other.

Lucy looked across the floor to see a narrow, yet long crack in one of the metal planks. She could tell that the metal wasn't stable probably due to the fact that no one has tended to it in so long. But she could see the faintest yellow light coming from inside the crack.

"Hey Natsu, come look at-ahh!" Lucy screamed as the metal collapsed under her, making her fall into the now much larger crack.

She landed on her rear with a 'thud', making her groan. She looked up to see the crack that she had fallen from. It was not that far above her, meaning that the only reason that she couldn't see anything else down here was because it was so dark.

"Lucy! Are you okay!?" Natsu yelled. She could see his silhouette from the opening above her.

"Yeah, I'm okay! Jump down, it's not that deep!" Lucy said, standing up. While she trusted Natsu to land without a problem, she started to search for that bright yellow light that she saw. She knew she had found it when she heard a cracking sound, as if she had stepped on broken glass. She turned on her flashlight and looked below her, seeing a broken camera lens. It obviously wasn't the lens that she was used to with digital cameras and such, but it was a camera lens that must have existed at _least_ fifty years ago, considering how big and bulky it was. The light must have come from the light from above reflecting off of it.

Natsu landed on the ground with an 'oof'; however still on his feet. He switched on his flashlight and took a look around. "Whoa, what is this place?" He asked, looking at the medals that were all over the wall. They were obviously Navy medals. "Hey Luce! Check out how tiny this jacket is!" Natsu said. Lucy turned around to find Natsu holding his flashlight with one hand and the tiniest Navy jacket she had ever seen in the other. It honestly looked like it would be a child's Halloween costume if it wasn't for all of the fancy badges and the Fiore Navy insignia on it. Whoever had that jacket must have been three feet tall, at most.

Lucy took this time to look at the walls, seeing that there were many pictures of Navy officers and the families on the cruise ship. Lucy walked over to the desk that was sitting at the very edge of the room. She picked up a picture that was laying face-down on the desk in a black wooden frame. It was a faded picture of a short old man who looked about three feet tall, probably the one who owns the jacket, and a boy who looks about twenty or twenty-one at his side. Lucy couldn't really tell with the horrible lighting, but he appeared to have blonde hair, but she couldn't miss the lightning bolt scar over his right eye. Lucy took the picture out of the frame and looked at the back.

"Former Admiral Makarov Dreyer and his grandson Laxus. Now co-captains." Lucy said to herself, but Natsu, who was still admiring the metals, heard her clearly. He came over to the desk and rested his head on Lucy's shoulder, looking down at the picture. He almost burst out laughing.

"Oh my God! That guy's real short!" He exclaimed, taking the photo from Lucy. "But his grandson's like Godzilla compared to him. He's huge!" Natsu admired. It was true, Laxus was a great deal taller than his grandfather and a lot more muscular too. While Natsu was still laughing at the picture (Lucy rolled her eyes), Lucy dug into the desk drawers. She wasn't really sure herself what she was hoping to find, but she hoped it would be something that would explain why they couldn't leave or why there was so much writing on the wall coming out of nowhere.

Lucy dug through lots of schematics of the ship until she finally came across a black leather journal about the size of her hand. The leather was scratched and ripped, and she could see that most of the pages had been torn out, but some still remained, though those weren't in very good shape either. Some of the pages had burn marks around the edges and it was making some of the words hard to flipped through the journal quickly, not really reading anything, but just skimming over some words. She saw from the first page that the journal belonged to Makarov. His handwriting was something to be jealous of, looking more like a work of calligraphy than just random writings in a journal. She scanned the pages until she found a page of a little girl with dark green hair and Makarov. She was riding on his shoulders and they were both smiling widely that, in a way, reminded her of Natsu. While she was sitting on the old man's shoulders, Lucy noticed the small rose-colored music box in her hand.

Lucy's eyes widened as she drew out the missing poster that she had taken earlier. The little girl on the poster was the same as within the picture: Asuka Connell. Just below the picture, there was something that Makarov had written.

 _Now that I think about it, Asuka always had that music box with her. I know it was a gift from her father who she loves very dearly, but it was almost as if she couldn't leave it. Bisca, Asuka's mother, told me that one time she had tried to take the music box away, but Asuka snarled at her and ran away. She came back later that day without a clue what had happened. Asuka has been getting much more distant now, always in some dark corner, listening to that music box. She looks like she's in a complete trance when she does, almost like a zombie._

"Hey Lucy, how do you think we are going to get out of here?" Natsu asked, staring at the opening in the ceiling. It was about fifteen or twenty feet away from the ground, so it would be impossible to jump up and get out.

"There has to be a door around here or something. It's not like this room could only be entered from a crack in the floor." Lucy said, looking around with her flashlight after she had stuffed the journal in her bag. Lucy knew that she could be completely wrong, but she felt that all of the strange occurrences that have been happening have something to do with that music box. It keeps showing up everywhere, and in the journal, Makarov stated that when Asuka heard the music box, she looked like a zombie. That was exactly how she would describe Erza when she thought she heard the music box.

"Hey, look at that." Natsu said, pointing his flashlight towards the small door that was situated at the very end of the room. It wasn't even taller than either of them, and Natsu would have an especially hard time getting through considering he was 5' 8''. The door looked only about four feet tall, probably a door made for Makarov so no one could enter because there was absolutely _no way_ that Laxus could have made it through there.

"Well, I guess it's our only way out." Lucy said as bent down to turn the handle. When she opened the door, she saw that the hallway was much bigger so they wouldn't have to bend down there. "Hey, uh...do you, um...mind going first?" Lucy asked hesitantly. Natsu just rolled his eyes at her.

"Alright, you big baby." Natsu said as he crouched down and then squeezed his way out. Lucy bent down as well, about to go through the door when suddenly, she heard a giggle. It sounded childish, like a kid at an amusement park. Lucy turned around, looking to see if there was something there, but there wasn't. This just made Lucy get out of there even faster.

* * *

A trap door on the floor swung open, revealing Lucy and Natsu. Both teams climbed out of the hatch looking at their surroundings.

"Wow, I didn't know there was a hatch in the kitchen. That's so cool!" Natsu exclaimed.

"It's smart." Lucy admitted. "Now let's find Gray and Erza. I hope they found a way out of this hellhole." Lucy said quietly.

"Should I use the blow horn?" He asked, pulling out of his bag.

"I don't want to take the chance that you wake up some zombie or something." Lucy said, putting her hands up.

"Pfft. Zombies." Natsu chuckled to himself as he exited the kitchen.

"Hey! With everything we've been seeing now, they could be real!" Lucy yelled after him.

* * *

"There you guys are!" The duo heard coming down another hallway. "Are you guys okay?" Gray asked.

"Other than my pounding head, I'm just peachy." Lucy muttered.

"Would you like me to massage it for you, Lucy?" Erza asked, coming up beside them.

"N-no, Erza. It's not hurting anymore." Lucy stuttered.

"Very well then, but please tell me if the pain comes back." Erza said in a demanding tone.

"S-sure thing." Lucy said, shrinking back a little.

"Anyway, did you guys find a way out of here?" Natsu asked.

"No, we tried every corner of this damn ship. There doesn't seem to be anyway out of here." Gray said, crossing his arms. Lucy bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Does that mean that we have to stay another night?" Natsu asked, trying to contain his excitement, knowing that the other three just wanted to get out of there.

"We don't know that. It's only three o'clock now. Maybe something will happen and the fog will clear." Erza said.

"I still don't get how any of this is happening. How could we be trapped in a place that we could get into but can't get out of?" Lucy asked, placing a hand on her chin.

"While you try to figure that out, let's eat! We didn't have breakfast this morning." Natsu said, pulling out his bag of spicy chips.

"We must ration the food. We don't know how long we're going to be here." Erza said, taking a sip of her water.

"We also have to decide where we're going to sleep next. I don't want to keep lugging all of this around." Lucy said, adjusting her backpack so that it would put less strain on her shoulders.

"Well, we found a really nice lounge while exploring. It actually has a balcony that overlooks the ballroom, but there's nothing that can fall on us there." Gray explained.

"I guess that's a good choice, seeing as the lounge is meant for comfort." Lucy said, nodding.

"Alright! Lead the way." Natsu exclaimed, ready to set his bag down so he could move easier.

* * *

At around four o'clock, the gang had all of their equipment set down, and Lucy decided to take a small walk while reading the journal. She bid her companions farewell before taking off, promising that she would still be in their line of sight.

Lucy walked around the rim of the balcony, looking down at the glass chandelier that was still shattered on the bottom floor. The balcony was about thirty feet off of the ground from the main floor. _That's a long way down._ Lucy just shook her head. That was the least of her worries at the moment.

Lucy pulled out the journal and flipped a couple of unimportant pages that only talked about a daily log. After she landed on a page with the words 'Dark Magic' on there, she knew that she should continue from there.

 _February 23, XXXX_

 _Fiore had successfully won the war three months ago, and I lost my son in the process. I didn't lose him physically, but he slowly started to drift away from the family, leaving Laxus in my care. Ivan wasn't pleased when I took him off of the offensive force, and he sought out to learn dark magic. Dark magic was a thing of the ancient past, but I have seen Ivan reading about dark magic before, and I believe it has corrupted him. I doubt he can do it, because almost no one has heard of dark magic and it is a thing of fairy tales. I just hope that, one day, he will just come home. I miss my son.  
_

 _~Makarov Dreyer_

Dark magic? There's such a thing as dark magic? _Wait, magic doesn't even exist!_ Lucy thought. However, with what's been happening, Lucy found part of herself believing it. Lucy looked back at the book. Several pages had been ripped out between that page and the next page. Lucy saw that the next page was the picture of Makarov and Asuka, so she turned another page. It was getting a little hard to read because of the dim light, so she leaned over the railing of the balcony, hoping to get a little light from the windows, even though there was no sun.

 _November 2, XXXX_

 _MUSIC CAPTURES THE SOUL!_

 _FREE THE SOULS!_

That was all it said. There was nothing left written on the page. Lucy's eyes widened. _Music captures the soul? That's the same thing that was written near the crankshafts!_ But Lucy couldn't dwell on the idea.

Because she felt like she was pushed.

And she fell off the railing.

 **Haiiii Guys! I'm sorry that I've not been updating as quickly as I have before. I'm starting my sophomore year in four days so I was just getting ready for that, and I guess I never really got the time.  
**

 **I hope everyone has a fantastic day...or _had_ a fantastic day, depending on where you are. **


	6. Dream

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Natsu had set his backpack down and stretched his arms, happy that he was finally able to relax. He looked at Lucy, who he had thought would be rubbing her feet or something from all of the walking they had done; however, she was still reading that journal that she had found while in the secret room. She had barely taken her nose out of it, except when they were coming out of thee hatch.

She told them that she was just going to take a walk around the perimeter of the balcony, and that she would still be in their line of vision. With that, she got up, dusted herself off a bit and started to walk away, book in her hand. Natsu couldn't help but follow her every move with his eyes. He was so focused that he only faintly heard Gray say that he was going to find his shirt that he had stripped off. Though he was excited to stay another night, he was nervous for the rest of his friends, particularly Lucy. He doesn't want anything to happen to her, and he knows that with all the strange things that have been happening, that it was a possibility that she might disappear, kind of like Erza did.

Natsu shook his head. He couldn't let that happen. He said that she would be fine if she was was with him.

But right now, she wasn't with him.

He saw her lean over the balcony, probably so she could get a little more light to what she was reading. That was when Lucy's eyes went wide, and she toppled off the balcony and was headed straight for the floor of the ballroom.

Everything went in slow motion for him. He broke out of his shock and rushed to his side of the balcony, just to see Lucy hit the floor. He saw that she absorbed much of the fall because of her feet, a trick that she learned while doing gymnastics, but the blow was still enough to knock her out.

"LUCY!" He didn't believe that he could have shouted louder. Erza, who had left the lounge just as she fell off the balcony, was at her side, trying to shake her awake.

"Natsu!" He heard her yell. "Bring me the bandages!" Natsu didn't have to be told twice.

While he was searching through the bags, he found himself hyperventilating. His heart beat loudly in his chest and his eyes were filled with tears that didn't bother to fall yet. Once he had gathered everything he needed, he rushed down to the first floor, almost contemplating jumping off the ledge also because that was the quickest way down, and skidded on the unpolished wooden floor until he stopped beside Lucy. He saw the line of blood trickling down her head, and he couldn't stop the tears from falling then.

"Natsu." Erza said. No answer. "Natsu!" She said as she grabbed his shoulders. "I know you care about Lucy a lot and you can't think straight right now, but I need you to hold her very carefully while I wrap up her head. Don't move her too much, we don't know how badly she hit her head. Please Natsu! You _need_ to calm down!" Erza said as she started to unravel the bandages.

Natsu's shaky hands did as he was told. He gently lifted Lucy's head so that it was hovering off of the ground, careful not to move it too much. He could feel some of her blood coating his hand and he had to choke back a sob. He knew that he had to calm down, because freaking out wouldn't do Lucy any good. But he just couldn't help it.

Erza looked at Natsu once she had finished wrapping the gauze around Lucy's head. She could tell how scared he was about this. It was usually Natsu who was the calm one (meaning that he wouldn't get scared and just beat anyone up who hurt his friends), even when Lucy's gotten hurt in the past. However, Lucy's now in bad condition, and going to the hospital is not an option. She could understand how scared Natsu was to lose her. She knew that Lucy was the most important person to him. However, she had to take charge, otherwise she might actually die with how much Natsu is panicking.

She looked down at Lucy, and prayed that she would be alright.

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes in a dark room. She sat up, completely aware of the horrible headache that she had. She rubbed her head as she tried to stand, but soon fell down again because of her legs that had somehow fallen asleep.

There was no light in the room, and the room was vacant, as if there was nothing there, just pitch darkness. Then, a light suddenly turned on, kind of like a spotlight. She had to block her eyes from the light that penetrated her vision. However, even though she couldn't see anything at the moment. There was one thing that was distinct in this vacant room. The sound of a music box.

Her eyes started to adjust to the light, and she was able to make out a silhouette of a child, maybe five or six years old. As Lucy's eyes focused more, she saw that it was a little girl, and she was sitting in front of that music box, though the music box looked...newer. The paint wasn't chipped, and the sound was much more pleasant to listen to. The girl giggled as she wound up the music box again, completely entranced by the sound.

 _Wait a minute._ Lucy thought as she took a closer look at the girl in the light.

It was Asuka Connell!

"That's my daughter." Someone said from behind Lucy. Lucy screamed and turned around to come face-to-face with a green-haired woman. She was wearing clothes that you would most likely find on a ranch. She was smiling softly at Lucy, but Lucy's eyes were wide as she took mini steps back. "Sorry if I scared you. My name is Bisca, I'm Asuka's mother." Lucy just dumbly nodded, not really knowing what to say. These people were supposedly dead _years_ ago. How would they be here? Bisca stepped up to Lucy and gave her a smile. "I'm so sorry for what I have done to you." Bisca said.

"W-what do you mean? What did you do?" Lucy asked. Bisca smiled sadly.

"I'm the one who pushed you off the balcony." She said softly. Lucy's eyes went wide. She knew she felt someone push her, but what was she doing here?

"A-am I...dead?" Lucy asked, horrified. Bisca let out a laugh.

"No doll, your not." Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. "You're just unconscious right now. After I pushed you, you got knocked out, but lucky you have some friends with you, so they're takin' care of you now." Bisca explained.

Lucy turned her head a little to look at Asuka still playing with her music box, a happy smile on her face. "I...don't understand. Why did you push me if you didn't want to? Why are you apologizing for it?" Lucy asked.

"It was not my choice. That music box," she pointed to the object. "is cursed. It turns souls bad. All the writing you have been seeing on the walls, that's us trying to scare you." She explained.

"What about the fog? Why can't we leave?" Lucy asked, getting more scared by the minute.

"I cannot give you an exact answer for that. All I know is that the fog won't lift until the music box has devoured all of the souls of the people on the ship. Your red-headed friend almost fell prey to it, didn't she?" Lucy's eyes widened once more, thinking about how Erza was walking like a zombie, as if she was possessed. "The music box draws you in with it's sound, then it sucks your soul right out of your body. That's what happened to Asuka," Bisca said, looking sadly at her daughter. "and my husband and I, as well as five others. You're familiar with Makarov Dreyer and his grandson, correct?" Lucy nodded. "They were the last to go."

"W-w-w-wait! How did this happen?" Lucy asked. "It was Ivan, wasn't it?"

Bisca nodded. "Ivan was hoping to scare the people away from the cruise ship to ruin his father's business. That's why he put a curse on the music box. Once people were scared enough, they ran away, leaving Makarov and Laxus in ruin. I liked Makarov a lot. He used to play with Asuka all the time." Bisca smiled. "He said he wouldn't abandon his ship until he died. That was when his grandson was taken. He was taken not much later."

Lucy covered her mouth with her hand. What son would be so horrible to send his own father and son, as well as many other innocent people to death? "That's terrible." That was the only thing that Lucy could say at the moment.

Bisca was about to respond, but she stopped herself and smiled. "Looks like you're waking up. Remember, to leave you'll have to free the souls." Bisca said. She started to fade away, along with Asuka.

"How?" Bisca just smiled. "How!?" Lucy asked louder.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to figure it out on your own."

Then everything went white.

* * *

Lucy woke up to a pounding headache and a pain in her ankles. She registered that she was laying on something bed-like; however not too comfortable. Lucy blinked her eyes open, glad that there was no blinding light. Actually, the room was quite dark. There was a curtain that had black smudges on it all around her bed, covering her from the outside world. She heard small whispers coming from outside. The first one that she registered was Natsu's considering his loud tone. She heard a 'clang' and knew that it was Erza hitting Natsu on the head with God-knows-what. She then heard Gray give a heavy sigh, probably at Natsu's stupidity. However, none of them were making any words that her brain could comprehend at the moment. Lucy tried to sit up, but immediately forced herself back down because of her headache.

Lucy then remembered what had happened. The journal, the fall, and the dream. It could have just been that, just a dream, but Lucy felt as if it was more. And, fact of the matter is, they didn't have any other explanation.

Lucy mustered up all of her strength and swung her legs over the bed. She tried to stand up, but a searing pain and a small cracking sound made her release a small scream and fall back down on the bed. That sound alone was enough to have Natsu almost tear off the curtain and rush to her side.

"Lucy!" He said as he scooped her upper body up with his arms, mindful of her head injuries, much to her surprise. Natsu sat on the cot, checking to make sure that she was okay. "Dammit Luce, you scared me half to death." Natsu said, looking at her straight in the eye. Lucy saw that his eyes were red and puffy, as if he had been crying. She instantly felt bad.

"Natsu, I'm so sorry." Lucy said as she tucked her head under his chin and breathed in his woodsy scent.

Natsu rested his head on top of hers. "It's fine, just...don't do that again."

"Ahem." Someone fake coughed. Gray and Erza were standing at the foot of the bed, Gray wearing a smirk on his face and Erza blushing slightly at the intimate position that her two friends were in. Gray could've definitely teased them right then and there, but Lucy was injured and he wasn't that much of a jackass to embarrass an injured person, but Natsu was _definitely_ going to get an earful of him later. Gray just smiled softly as he went over to the other side of Lucy's bed. "How are you feeling, Lu?" Gray asked as he pet Lucy's hair gently, who was still in Natsu's arms.

"I've felt better." Lucy said as Natsu helped her sit up. "Where are we?" Lucy asked.

"The ship's infirmary." Erza said as she took out her flashlight. "Look here Lucy." She said as she held out her pointer finger to her, then shined the flashlight in one eye. She then did the same to the other eye. "It's incredible that you managed to escape with only a mild concussion Lucy. I'm impressed that you were able to think quickly to try to cushion your fall with your feet." Erza said as she smiled. Lucy blushed.

"But your feet weren't as lucky." Gray said as he pointed to her feet. "Your left ankle is sprained and your right is fractured. You shouldn't be able to walk anymore."

"We wrapped them up, and they should hold up until we get to a hospital." Erza said.

" _If_ we get to a hospital." Gray muttered. Erza shot him the deadliest glare Lucy had ever seen, making Gray shrink back a lot.

"Don't worry guys. I think I know a way for us to get back. Do you know where Makarov's journal is?" Lucy asked Natsu. He just shrugged.

"Oh, that old book you were reading? It's still in the lounge." Gray answered.

"Can you guys take me there? I have quite a few things I want to tell you guys." Lucy said.

"Alright, let's go. Natsu, carry Lucy on your back." Erza said. Natsu just nodded, picking Lucy up gently and placing her on his back. The four of them started to make their way back to the lounge, Natsu trailing behind a little. Lucy then noticed that he had been silent for all of the way there.

"Natsu? Come on, talk to me. What's up?" Lucy said, squeezing his shoulder a little bit. Natsu kept his eyes on the floor.

"I'm sorry." Natsu said quietly.

"For what?"

"I said that nothing bad was going to happen to you. I failed my best friend. I'm so sorry, Luce." Natsu said. Lucy just slapped him on the shoulder.

"That's it? Don't beat yourself up about that! There's nothing that you could have done. Anyways, I can't forgive you because there is nothing to be sorry for. You never failed me Natsu, you never do." Lucy said, resting her head on his shoulder again.

"Hey Luce?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks...you weirdo."

"Shove it, pyro." She mumbled into his shoulder.

 **Yay, another chapter done. I can't believe it! Six chapters in ONE MONTH! Wow! Of course, other people could probably do much better, but this is an accomplishment for me.**

 **I really hope that this chapter wasn't too much of an info dump on you guys. I was writing it so that Bisca told Lucy the whole story of what happened, and how to fix everything, but I knew you guys would get bored of reading that, so the rest of the story will be given to you in little hints. I hope some of your questions were answered though!**

 **Anyway, drop a review if you want to. It would really make me feel great, but don't feel like you have to.**

 **As always, I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day! I will know if you're not! Jk, I'm not stalking you.**

 **Or am I? o_O**


	7. Locked In

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

So what you're saying is...we're trapped here until we can free the dead souls from a creepy little music box?" Gray asked, looking at Lucy weirdly.

The gang had made it back to where their equipment was, Natsu carrying Lucy the entire way. Since she had woken up, Natsu was always in a one foot radius of her, almost always having his arm around her shoulder when she was sitting down. He always had to have some physical contact with her, just to make sure that she didn't wander off and get hurt again. Lucy felt so bad for worrying him.

Lucy was sitting on her sleeping bag with Natsu laying down with his head in her lap. She just nodded at Gray as she stroked through Natsu's salmon locks. "Mhm. I'm not to sure about it myself, but it is the only theory we have. If we can free the souls, the fog will lift. But until then, the music box will keep using it's sound to try and draw us in." Lucy explained.

"Is that why my body moved on it's own when I heard the sound?" Erza asked. Lucy nodded. "Interesting." Erza said, putting a finger on her chin.

"Great, freaking _great_. The one thing that we have to fight is one of the creepiest things known to man." Gray grumbled.

"Do we even know how to free these souls?" Erza asked.

"No, Bisca didn't tell me anything." Erza raised an eyebrow. "The woman who I talked to in the dream." Lucy explained.

Gray bent down and looked Lucy straight in the eye, making Natsu release a low growl. "Can it, Dragon Boy." Gray hissed at him, looking at Lucy again. "Are you one hundred percent sure that it was really a ghost who talked to you, and not just some crazy dream?" He asked.

"There is a slight possibility that it might be just a dream, but I just have a feeling that what Bisca said to me was true. I put my full faith in it." She told him. Gray gave a small smile.

"Alright. Then I'll believe you." He said, squeezing her shoulder a bit before pulling away. Lucy smiled at him, then looked at Erza.

"You already had my full support when you started explaining. Just tell me what to do." Erza said.

"Thanks, you guys!" Lucy said. She then looked down at her lap. "Natsu?"

"You would have to be crazy to think that I wouldn't believe you." Natsu said sitting up. "We're a team, we do everything together. I know for a fact that you can get us out of here." Natsu said, swinging an arm over her shoulder and pulling her into a hug. She hugged him back, squeezing him lightly.

"Thanks Natsu." Lucy said softly. She then looked at Erza and Gray. "But I don't understand. How can you guys remain so calm? It's as if you deal with supernatural stuff everyday." Lucy said.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but I always believed there was something supernatural out there, and this just proves it. Besides, these ghosts were once people like us, but they're trapped here. So we have to do everything we can to help, right?" Gray said, crossing his arms with a smile.

Erza smiled at him and roughly pat him on the shoulder, making him wince. "Very well said, Gray. Same goes for myself. I want to make sure that everyone that was captured by this 'magic spell' is able to leave this horrible place."

"So Luce, just tell us what you think we should do." Natsu said.

Lucy was so touched that her friends believed in her so much, but the truth was: she didn't really have a plan. This wasn't a normal situation that could have a normal solution. This was paranormal activity that they were dealing with.

"W-well," Lucy stuttered, trying to think of something. "I think that the first thing that we should do is see who the eight souls that are trapped are. They must have records or something. Do you think that you can go through the reception's desk in the morning, Erza?" Lucy asked. Erza nodded in confirmation. "Alright, either Gray or Natsu would have to accompany you, since we can't take the chance that the music box will draw us in when we're separated. The other person can help me read through the journal. Also," Lucy started looking down. "I'll need someone to carry me on their back." Lucy mumbled, embarrassed.

"There's nothing wrong with that Lucy. I'll go with Erza. It's not like Flame Breath will let you out of his sight anyway." Gray said.

"Damn straight, Fullbastard." Natsu retorted.

"I hope...that you two aren't fighting." Erza said threateningly, cracking her knuckles.

"Of course not Erza!" Natsu said, swinging the arm that wasn't occupied by Lucy around Gray.

"Yeah, we're just having a friendly discussion!" Gray said, putting his arm around Natsu's shoulder as well.

Erza nodded in approval. "It's good to see that you two are getting along so well. You're bond of friendship must be very strong."

Natsu and Gray internally scoffed. _Yeah, right._

"Anyway," Lucy cut in. "after we do that, I have absolutely no idea what to do. Maybe I can sleep on it." Lucy shrugged.

"Hang on." Gray said, holding up his arms. "How do we know that the music box won't try and take us during the night?" He asked.

"I might have a solution for that." Erza said, shoveling through her backpack. "Ah here!" She said, pulling out some emergency rope. "We can tie our wrists together so when one of us gets up to move, the other people will feel it."

"I don't know how that's going to work on Lucy, though. She sleeps like a dead person." Natsu said, jerking his thumb towards her.

"At least _I_ don't pretend to be a pro boxer in my sleep." Lucy retorted. She still has the bruises. She doesn't understand why she still lets him sleep next to her. Probably because after he sneaks into her apartment and sleeps next to her, he always makes his special pancakes that she loves so much. Sadly for him, he doesn't have the ingredients to make those pancakes.

Before Natsu could retort, he felt the rope around his wrist, tying him to Lucy. Lucy was tied to Gray and Gray was tied to Erza.

"This is going to be uncomfortable." Lucy murmured.

* * *

All of them were asleep in the middle of the night, except Lucy. Which is very weird, since she is usually the first to crash and the deepest sleeper. She couldn't help but feel anxious about where she was. There were freaking ghosts after them, for God's sake! How is it that the other three could sleep so calmly knowing they are in a life or death situation?

Another reason Lucy couldn't sleep is because she feels the sneaking suspicion that they are being watched. Now, she's read a lot of books. And when a character feels like they're being watched, they are usually being watched. It could be, of course, Lucy being paranoid. But that's what they all say! She closed her eyes again, trying to force herself asleep.

She then felt herself being pulled. Thinking that it was one of her friends being drawn in by the music box, she looked over on the side that Natsu was on to see that he was untying the knot that bounded him to her. She quickly grabbed his wrist, hoping to shake him from his trance, but he just looked at her and smiled.

"It's okay, Luce. I just need to go to the bathroom." He whispered, trying to keep his voice down for fear of waking Erza.

"You shouldn't go alone. You want me to wake up Gray?" Lucy asked concerned.

Natsu scoffed. "No way. I don't want him coming with me." He said as he walked over to his pack and took out his blow horn. Handing it to her, he picked her up and put her on his back. "Let's rock." He said as he walked out of the lounge, careful not to step on Erza, but giving Gray a little kick in the face.

"What am I going to do when you go to the bathroom?" Lucy asked.

"I'll just sit you outside until I'm done."

"What if I get drawn in by the music box? Or attacked?"

"You ask too many questions." He sighed. "You wouldn't be able to make it very far anyway because of your messed up feet. And if you're attacked...that's your problem." He said, shrugging. Lucy knew that he meant it in a joking way, but she hit his shoulder anyway. "Besides, if you're attacked just call for me." He said, motioning to the blow horn.

"Is that why you made me bring this thing?" Lucy asked.

"No. I figured that if I get drawn in, you wouldn't be able to walk and stop me. So, just sing a song in the most ugly voice you have. That seems to release you from the affects of the music box." Natsu said.

Lucy looked at him weirdly. "When did you get so smart?" She asked as they reached the men's bathroom.

Natsu sent her a glare as he set her down outside. "I'm genius smart!" He said, puffing out his chest.

"If that helps you sleep at night, then sure, you're Einstein." She said sarcastically.

Natsu rolls his eyes before entering the bathroom, leaving Lucy outside. She's starting to feel that going with Natsu for this was a very bad idea. She feels the cold air of the abandoned metal ship surround her, and she has to rub her hand on her arms to try to create some warmth. Every little sound started to freak her out, be it the soft creaking of the floorboards she was sitting on or the flickering light of some of the light bulbs on the ceiling. She had to take a deep breath to try to calm herself down.

Wait...

They didn't turn on any lights.

Lucy trained her eyes around her, now looking at the dimly lit hallway. _It was a complete miracle that there was still electricity in this ship._ Lucy thought. However, that didn't change the fact that the lights just came on randomly.

A small giggle was heard, making Lucy jump. The sound came from down the next hallway, not very close to her, but still within hearing range. Lucy was starting to become frantic, struggling to keep her breathing under control. It reassured her that Natsu was near her, but he was...occupied at the moment.

Lucy let out a small shriek when the giggle came again, even closer than before.

Lucy felt something on her shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it wasn't the demonic ghost of Asuka or another one of the other taken souls. But she visibly relaxed when she heard her best friend's voice.

"Yo Luce, you okay?" Natsu asked. Lucy shook her head.

"No, I'm not okay. There's something down there!" She said, pointing towards the hallway. "We have to go!"

Natsu sighed. "Okay, but they haven't done anything too bad to us yet. We don't even know if they're a threat." Natsu said, putting Lucy on his back. He started to walk back to the base, when Lucy heard a sound cutting through the air. She looked behind her, and if she didn't act as quickly as she did, that would be her last memory.

"Natsu! Duck!" Natsu didn't have time to contemplate what she meant when he crouched down, ducking his head. There was a piercing sound up ahead, and when he looked, he saw a metal shard embedded deep within the opposite wall. "Do you know if they're a threat now?" Lucy asked before Natsu got up. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"I should be asking you that. That thing would have been deep in your skull by now." Natsu stated. "But now's not the time, let's..." he was interrupted by another crash.

He's _really_ getting tired of those.

"Keep walking, I'll be your eyes." Lucy said quietly. He felt Lucy crane her head to look behind her as he started to walk. Even though he was tempted to look behind him, he knew it would only slow them down. Then, he heard another crash.

"Lucy, what's going on?" Natsu asked, still looking ahead.

"They're breaking the lights. They're coming towards us!" She said.

Now it was Natsu's turn to look behind them. That's when he saw the lights, which weren't on earlier, go out because they were being broken. One by one, the lights broke as the force breaking them got closer and closer.

Uncharacteristically, Natsu didn't feel the need to fight this presence. All he cared about was getting out of there. So, Natsu took off in a sprint, going in every and any direction he could. He wasn't even sure if he was heading back to where Erza and Gray were at all.

Next thing Natsu knew when he turned down the next hallway, the light broke right near their heads, staggering them backwards so that they would not get hit by any of the glass shards. Natsu then continued down another hallway, and suddenly, the whole ship became a maze. Plus he had to worry about the two... _things_ that were following him.

So much for finishing that bucket list.

"Natsu, keep going straight forward. I told you, I'll be your eyes." Lucy said. Huh, Natsu was so scared, he almost forgot she was there. And that's saying something, considering how she's on his back.

Natsu didn't say anything as he continued down the hallway, trying to ignore the the sounds of scraping metal and breaking glass from behind him. He would ask Lucy what was going on, but that wasn't the main objective in his mind at the moment. His breathing became frantic when he turned yet another corner.

His breathing almost stopped when a support beam almost fell on him, blocking the way down the hall.

The sounds were quickly drawing near and Natsu was running out of options, so, to make sure that they would at least get out of the hallway, he entered the nearest door and shut it behind him, laying Lucy on the ground before sliding down himself. The air in the room was thick, and that didn't help his heavy breathing.

"Natsu, are you alright?" Lucy said as she pulled herself up and sat next to him near the door. She, of course, was not panting hard at all, but the air was still hard to breathe.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm okay." He said, leaning his head on her shoulder. He breathed in her scent, which surprisingly still smelled like vanilla and honey even though they hadn't showered in two days.

Oh well, Lucy was weird.

"Do you think they're gone?" Lucy asked, looking at the closed door behind them.

Natsu took a few gulps of air to try and catch his breath. "Dunno, let me check." He said, standing up with the strength that he had left. He grabbed the door handle and fiddled with it a bit, before cussing and hitting the door.

"God dammit, it's locked!"

 **I have to say, I'm not as happy with this chapter as I am with the other ones. But tell me what you guys think, and where it could improve. I'm very good with criticism so don't be afraid of hurting my feelings. Of course, if you bash me, I'll feel bad, but I can't blame you for your opinion.**

 **Anyway, one of the people reading this story messaged me and asked why I started this story. _You could go ahead and skip if you want._ It won't be that long, though.**

 **My family and I took a trip to Long Beach, California, where we visited the Queen Mary's ship. That ship creeped the hell out of me, so in an attempt to make myself feel better, I just started to imagine Natsu and Lucy there. And that was the inspiration. Not anything special, it just hit me like a soccer ball to the stomach.**

 **...not saying that happened to me.**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are. And remember, if you're having a bad day, talk to someone. I know it's hard, but it helps. I'll always lend an ear if you need me to! Of course, not forcing you to.**

 **Love you guys! Bye~!**


	8. The Darkend Corner

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Natsu slid down the door again, repeatedly banging his head into it. Lucy slid her hand behind his head to stop him from doing so anymore. He just looked at her, and then put his head on her shoulder so that he could try to focus on his breathing. The air was starting to get very stuffy then.

"I don't understand. It shouldn't be this hot down here since the engine isn't on, and how come this stupid door won't open?!" Lucy asked, banging her hand against it.

"Your guess is as good as...no, better than mine." Natsu panted. Lucy put an arm around his neck to give him more comfort on her shoulder. She knew that it must have been hard for him to run through all of those different hallways with her on his back. Now, she just felt really bad about it. Lucy sat up straighter as she pushed Natsu off her gently, propping him up for the door to support him.

"Hang out here, okay? I'm going to check what's down there." Lucy said, pointing to the part of the big room that was completely shadowed.

"But Luce, you can't walk." Natsu muttered, his eyes drooping slightly.

"Not on my feet I can't." Lucy said. She steadied herself as she sat, and then pushed herself onto her hands, forming a perfect handstand. She then started to walk, slowly and carefully with perfect balance and precision.

This is what seven and a half years of gymnastics will get you.

Natsu rested his head against the door as he took big gulps of air. He didn't really understand _why_ he was so tired. It definitely wasn't from Lucy, because she barely weighed anything. It wasn't because he was running for so long, because he was pretty athletic. But then, why was he so lethargic. His eye lids started to get heavy, but he forced himself awake, keeping his eyes on Lucy the whole time. If he fell asleep now, then she would be alone. Unfortunately for him, his brain couldn't take the lack of oxygen and the fatigue anymore, so he silently ( **pfft, not a word I would use for Natsu** ) drifted off to sleep.

Lucy didn't notice this as she crept around the dark ends of the room. It looked like an old bedroom, but with no bed. There was a dresser with a mirror, a night table with a broken lamp on it, and lots of scratched up paintings. Lucy could feel her hands starting to wear out, but if this was the only way she could walk, she would do it. It wasn't fair for Natsu to carry her everywhere. And he was absolutely exhausted now. So she bore through it, hoping to find some way to get out of that room or something worthwhile.

Lucy ventured deeper into the dark ends of the room, grunting as she felt her arms ache. Despite this, she kept looking around, but it was getting hard for her eyes to adjust to her surroundings. It was because of this that she hit into something hard and wooden, toppling back onto her butt.

"Ow, shit!" Lucy whisper screamed as she cradled her throbbing fingers. Man, that hurt more than stubbing a toe.

She looked at the object that she hit into, ready to break it into oblivion, when she saw a beautiful wooden chest with a rusted padlock. Not seeing a reason to get back onto her hands, she carefully crawled over to the beat up chest. She eyed it like it contained some sort of treasure inside.

 _I feel like a pirate!_ Lucy thought gleefully. She then shook her head. _Not the point Lucy! Oh no...is Natsu rubbing off on me!?_ Lucy stopped freaking out internally to take a look at the chest before her. The wood was rough, and she knew that she would get splinters if she didn't touch it with caution. The padlock looked old, and it looked as if it could be broken with even the most gentle tug.

Noticing this, she pulled on the padlock, and the lock broke easily. She threw the lock on the ground and carefully opened the chest.

She was then met by a large gust of wind, and a scream.

The sound was horrifying. It was like a banshee's wail that was strong enough to cut through rock. Lucy covered her ears quickly to try to shield some of the noise away from her. The wail started to get louder and louder, and though it didn't take a physical form for Lucy to see, she knew that it was getting closer. A sudden dark presence looked over her, and when she looked up, she saw a dark shadow in the shape of a person. It was more of a haze, as if it was some sort of gas, but she could clearly see that it has arms and legs, just like a regular person.

The shadow shot it's hand forward and caught Lucy by the neck, lifting her a little off the ground. She tried to break free of the shadow, but her hands would do nothing but go through it. The shadow squeezed her neck tighter. Lucy wanted to call for Natsu, but there was something in the back of her head that told her that she had to handle the situation herself. She tried to gasp for air, but the figure didn't even let her get a breath.

The figure started to mumble something unintelligible, like it was in some different language. Lucy saw black spots in her vision as she started to lose consciousness. Now, she was almost completely out of breath. So, she reached behind her, trying to find something that would be able to fend the shadow off. She felt her hand reach into the wooden chest as she pulled out something metal, she quickly swiped it in front of her, trying to get the mysterious figure to back up

The shadow released her, sending her to the ground, gasping for air. There was a shot of blinding light, and the shadow let out another loud wail before disappearing, leaving Lucy on the floor, speechless. She looked at the item in her hands.

It was a key of some sort.

It was golden, with beautiful carvings and designs at the top. The key had some sort of symbol on it, and Lucy immediately recognized it. It was the sign for Leo, the Lion of the Zodiac. Lucy turned around to look back into the chest. There was another key of the like laying in there too. The key's shape was different, and so was the symbol. The one on that key was the symbol for the Maiden, Virgo. Lucy picked that one up as well, examining it.

Did the shadow flee because she swiped the key in front of it's face? The wail it let out sounded frightened, and it dropped her once it saw that she had the key in her possession.

Nothing in the world made _any_ sense anymore. Lucy just stared at the two keys that she held, wondering about their significance. They both gave off a warm and gentle aura, like a small fire.

But that wasn't something that she could think about right then.

Because the room suddenly caught on fire.

Lucy screamed as some of the embers hit her arm, burning just a bit of her flesh. She scrambled to get away, getting back on her two hands and getting as far away from that dark corner as possible. She saw Natsu leaning on the door, sweating with a troubled look on his face.

Lucy stopped right next to him, watching the burning of the room while trying to shake him awake. "Natsu! Come on Natsu, get up!" Lucy screamed as the flames came closer and closer. Natsu stirred a little before opening his eyes. Before he could scold Lucy about waking him up, the smell of smoke hit his sensitive nose. He looked over Lucy's shoulder to see that the room was burning down. Natsu quickly pulled Lucy to his chest, pressing her face into his shirt so that she wouldn't breathe in any of the smoke.

Natsu tried to get the door open again, but it was still locked. Actually, it felt different. It was more like the door was unlocked, but someone was holding the door closed from the other side.

The flames started to cover the walls as it crept closer and closer towards them. Natsu put his head on top of Lucy and squeezed his eyes shut. His throat felt raw from the smoke so he couldn't talk. Lucy was shaking in his hold, also unable to talk.

"Natsu! Lucy!" A familiar voice shouted. It was Gray. He must have gone to look for them after they had disappeared.

Natsu tried to door again, but this time it opened with ease, making the two teens fall onto their backs in the hallway. Natsu clutched onto Lucy as he scrambled away and slammed the door shut to put as much distance between them and the flaming room. He pushed himself so that his back was supported by the wall of the other end of the narrow hallway. Natsu laid his head on Lucy's again and breathed in her scent while taking large gulps of air. Lucy was doing the same, her face still on his chest.

"A-are you alright?" Natsu asked, trying to find his voice. Lucy only nodded as she snuggled her face more into his chest. Natsu stroked her hair comfortingly, trying to stop her shaking.

"There you guys are!" They heard someone yell from down the hallway. Gray was running towards them with Erza in tow. Gray slid on the floor until he came face-to-face with both Natsu and Lucy. "We've been looking for you guys everywhere!" Gray said as he panted, putting one hand on their shoulders to support himself.

"We thought that you two had been taken." Erza said, stopping before Lucy. "What happened?" She asked, looking at their frazzled state.

"Lounge...journal." Were the only things that Lucy was able to say.

"She want to go back to the lounge." Natsu translated for her. Erza nodded.

"Alright, let's go." She said. Natsu got up and brought Lucy onto his back while Gray steadied them both before they started walking to the lounge again.

Lucy hung onto Natsu's neck for safety, the two keys still clutched in her hands.

 **Okay, so I know that I have not updated in a while, and I'm really sorry for that! School has been pretty hectic and I'm on the Orchestra Council so I was doing a lot of stuff on that. I really hope that you liked that chapter. I was getting a little annoyed with my writing because I made Lucy hurt her feet, meaning she has to be carried everywhere, but I had to make her hurt in some way because of the fall she took from the balcony. This chapter was one of the more heavy chapters in the story, so I decided to listen to some Gothic music to get the mood right for writing this. It actually _really_ helps. It makes your imagination seem more like a movie with background music.  
**

 **Tell me what you thought of this chapter in the comments section. Your comments are seriously appreciated!**

 _ **Question for you guys: Do you know how to nae nae? (Is that how it's spelt?)**_

 **I seriously have no idea what a 'nae nae' is...I just heard it from a friend...**

 **Anyways, I hope that everyone has a fantastic day wherever they are! Best of luck for school!**


	9. Brave

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE!: Concerning the last chapter, there is something that I want to clear up. Yes, those were Loke and Virgo's keys, but NO, Lucy will not start getting any supernatural powers or the powers she has in the anime, because I'm trying to keep it realistic. (Even though ghosts aren't very realistic). But don't worry, I have a special plan for them. Now on with the story!**

"I'm telling you, it's not!" Gray yelled at Natsu.

"It has to be Ice Freak, I was there standing right in front of it!" Natsu yelled back.

After Natsu and Lucy had escaped the flaming monstrosity of a room, they headed back to the lounge. After Natsu had told them the story of what happened, Erza yelled at him for leaving the room to completely burn and possibly spread and kill them all. But since Lucy was unable to walk and Natsu looked like he was going to pass out from the smoke he consumed, she told (forced) Gray to go back down the hallway to the room. When he came back, the room was reportedly not burnt and in perfect condition.

"What if you went into the wrong room!?"

"I didn't, dumb ass! It was the right room down the right hallway, and even if it was the wrong room, I would have smelt the fire!"

"But Lucy got burned!" Natsu said, motioning to Lucy who was inspecting the bandages around her feat. Erza was next to her, checking her feat for any other signs of bruises or fractures. Apparently, according to Erza and her expert medical knowledge, her left ankle that was sprained had now completely healed, but her right one still had a stress fracture. Lucy was going to take her word for it, she _did_ come from a family of doctors, after all.

"Where? I don't see anything." Erza said, inspecting Lucy for any signs of burn or inflammation after she was done wrapping the last of her bandages.

"Erza, I'm fine." Lucy said. "It was just a small..." She trailed off once she saw her arm again. The burn was gone! All that was left was her normal white, creamy skin. "I could have sworn that I felt that burn." She said, showing Natsu her arm.

"Calm down Lucy, it was probably just a hallucination. We're all a bit tired because we haven't slept." Erza said, putting her hand on Lucy's shoulder.

"No! We can't chalk it up to just being a hallucination anymore!" Lucy yelled hysterically.

"Lucy! Calm down!" Came Erza's authoritative voice. Lucy immediately shrunk back. "Even if it isn't a hallucination, you should be grateful that you aren't actually burnt, otherwise that might lead to other detrimental causes. You're already in bad condition as it is." She said. All Lucy could do was nod. There was really nothing else she wanted say in front of Erza.

"Well, now that _that's_ settled, Erza and I are going to go see if we can find any clues regarding the missing people." Gray said, motioning to Erza.

"Try not to get into trouble, you two." Erza's demanding voice said as she addressed Natsu and Lucy.

"Aye sir!" both of them squeaked. Erza gave her nod of approval before taking off with Gray. It was silent for a few moments. Natsu was looking down at his lap, and Lucy was fingering her new keys unconsciously. Natsu caught a whiff of their metallic smell and looked over at her, seeing her with two foreign objects.

"Hey, Luce. What are those?" He asked. Lucy turned to looked at him and stared at him in confusion, but he was just looking at her hands. She moved her gaze there as well, seeing the two keys she had picked up from the box.

"Oh, I picked these up while we were in that room. They seemed to have repelled a ghost...thing, but I'm really not sure." Lucy said shrugging her shoulders as she picked up Leo's key. She was enveloped in a warm presence again.

"So, where do you want to go?" Natsu asked, breaking Lucy's trance. She held up her two keys.

"Let's go down to the hatch. Maybe there will be something about these down there." Lucy said.

"Alright then, let's go." Natsu said as he grabbed his flashlight and a pack of matches, just in case his flashlight ran out. After he stuffed them in his pocket, he proceeded to pick Lucy up. But this time, instead of putting her on his back, he lifted her up bridal-style.

"W-whoa! What are you doing?" Lucy asked as she latched her arms around Natsu's neck to make sure she wouldn't lose her balance.

Natsu scoffed and looked away. "Tch, give my back a break from your weight for once, huh?" Natsu said, thankful that she couldn't see the slight flush in his cheeks.

Lucy glared at him, but couldn't help the smile that started to creep up onto her face. She gently nudged his shoulder before resting her head against it.

"Sorry you have to carry me all this way Natsu. I can walk on my hands if you want me to." Lucy offered. Natsu shook his head.

"And have to talk to your feet? How about...no." Natsu said. Lucy puffed out her cheeks and stuck her tongue out at him. Natsu raised an eyebrow and pretended to drop Lucy, earning him a string of profanities from Lucy and a hard smack on the head.

Natsu obviously wasn't taking them through the engine room, considering that he would have to jump through the crack with Lucy in his arms. So, he was taking the kitchen route. Once he entered, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He didn't know if it was from the temperature, which he doubted since he never got cold, or if it was from this bad feeling that he got. He heard Lucy call it a _per-prem-premoni-_ something. It was just a bad feeling, alright!

Lucy insisted that she climb down the ladder herself, which made Natsu protest. When she gave him a glare, he knew that it would be best if he just went along with what she said. After she went down, he followed, climbing down the rusty ladder. They then started down the hallway and crawled through the small door. Upon entering the room, they saw that it was exactly how they left it.

Lucy stood up on her own after climbing through the door. Natsu moved to give her a hand, but Lucy pushed him away gently with a smile. "It's okay Natsu, I think I can walk now."

"But-" Natsu started.

"Don't worry. Erza said that my sprained ankle was healed, I just have to make sure that I don't put any weight on my fractured foot." Lucy said, grinning as she put all of her weight on her left side.

"Lucy, no. You aren't fully healed yet." Natsu seethed. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Natsu, chill. I'm capable of taking care of myself." Lucy said, putting her hands in front of her in a gesture to calm him. It seemed to have worked, because Natsu uncrossed his arms and breathed in a deep sigh.

"I know that. I just...don't want you getting hurt." Natsu said with sincere eyes. Lucy reached over and grabbed his hand, holding it between her own.

"Thank you. You're always there for me." She said, bringing his hand up to her mouth to give it a slight peck before releasing it and limping over to Makarov's desk, sitting in his chair and digging through the drawers with one hand while holding her flashlight in the other hand. Natsu brought his hand to his chest and held it there. He felt a burn where Lucy's lips had been, but it was a good burn. It was a burn you needed when you felt too cold.

Natsu shook his head as he walked over to Lucy. "So what are we looking for exactly?" He asked. She just shrugged.

"Anything related to keys or getting off this ship." Natsu just nodded dumbly as he watched her work. He decided that it wasn't going to do any good if he just waited around, so he started exploring the different cabinets that he didn't get to see before.

"Jackpot!" He cried, making Lucy look at him. In his hands were about five or six big, white candles and one small one. Lucy grinned, thankful that she didn't have to hold her flashlight up anymore.

"Great job, Natsu. You brought matches, right?" She asked.

"Mhm." Natsu hummed. He set four of the candles on the table, struck a match, and lit them all fluently. He then placed the other two on opposite sides of the room, just to keep those parts illuminated. "...Hey Lucy?" Natsu asked. Lucy eyed him, surprised at the seriousness in his tone. "What are we going to do once we get out of here?" He asked.

Lucy stopped shuffling through the desk drawers to fully turn her attention to him. "The only thing I'm worried about right now is getting off this ship and freeing the souls so they don't have to live in this hellhole anymore." She answered. "Why do you ask?" She asked him.

He pulled up another chair that was sitting in the office somewhere and placed it directly next to her. "No reason. I just keep thinking that if we get out of here-" He started.

" _When_ we get out of here." Lucy interrupted.

"-it would be really traumatizing for all of us. But I admit, ghosts and supernatural stuff are pretty cool." Natsu said as he chuckled. He felt Lucy lean her head on his shoulder.

"You're really brave, you know that Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"Naw." Natsu said, flushing a little. Lucy noticed this and pinched his cheek.

"You bet, Natsu. You're probably the bravest out of all of us." Lucy said, nudging his shoulder.

"I don't know, Luce. You're pretty brave too." Natsu said truthfully. Lucy looked at him in shock, her eyes wide.

"You're kidding, right? I'm the scaredy-cat of scaredy-cats." Lucy admitted. Natsu just shook his head.

"No way. You're real brave." Lucy didn't look convinced. "Okay, you're brave enough to throw apple juice in that big guy Orga's face because he insulted Levy."

"That's not-"

"You're brave enough to calm down Erza when she's pissed at me and Gray."

"Gray and I-" She tried to correct.

"And most of all, you're brave enough to still stick with us through all of our shit. Remember what happened with the buffalo-"

"I told you never to bring that up!" Lucy yelled.

"Okay, okay." Natsu said, putting his hands up in surrender. "The point is: you're really brave. So what if you don't want to walk over a shark tank or fight a ghost. You're still really brave in my eyes." Natsu said, swinging an arm around her.

"Thanks Natsu." She said. "Really, thanks for everything. I'm so blessed to have you care this much for me." Lucy said as she held out her fist.

Natsu grinned as he fist bumped her. "No problem, Luce. It's my job to care for you."

"Why's that?" Lucy asked, sifting through the papers once again.

"Because I lo-" Natsu started, but he immediately cut himself off. Lucy noticed this and turned to look at him. He was really grateful that the light of the candle already made him look like he was blushing so she couldn't see the real color of his face.

"What's wrong Natsu?" Lucy asked suspiciously.

"U-uh, because I... _like_ you. Yeah, I really like you. Of course I like you, you're my best friend in the whole world." Lucy blushed at this and smiled.

"I really like you too, then." She replied, turning back to the stack of papers she had found. Natsu let out a silent breath when she wasn't looking, his eyes wide. _Jeez, that was close._ Natsu thought. "Natsu, I think I found something!" She said, motioning to a stack of papers that were held together by a rounded piece of wire. She quickly flipped through the pages as Natsu watched in interest. Each piece of parchment had a drawing of a key on it, inked and professionally drawn. The first two pages had keys that were identical to the ones that Lucy had on her now. "Hm, it seems like there are twelve keys like these ones." Lucy thought to herself. She flipped another page to see an odd-looking key with the twelve other keys surrounding it. The last page she flipped to displayed a beautiful drawing of some kind of flower. It was layered, and had twelve petals, each with a little circle at the end. The middle of the flower also had a circle drawn in it.

"What's this supposed to mean?" Natsu asked, picking up a crumpled up piece of paper that was under the stack. It looked like a page ripped out of a notebook. Using his deductive skills, which he rarely ever uses, he came to the conclusion that it was ripped out of the old man's journal.

Lucy took the page from him and examined it. "'Twelve keys lead to the silver crank. Replace silver crank with the black one, and the souls will be purified.'" Lucy said. She then jumped over a torn part of the page to look at the rest. "'...hidden in case it falls into the wrong hands.'" She reads softly. "Natsu, I think Makarov is talking about the crank on the music box." Lucy said as she flipped a page back to the drawing of the crank that the old man was probably talking about. "If we replace the crank, maybe we can free the souls!" Lucy exclaimed ecstatically as she grinned up at him. He grinned down at her, his previous embarrassment forgotten. They high-fived each other.

"I'm all fired up!" They both exclaimed.

 **I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, I've been quite busy. But I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review if it won't be too much trouble.**

 **Anyway, question for you guys: _If I were to make another story (Which_ might _or_ might not _happen), what would you guys want to genre to be? Do you like this mystery story that I have created, or did you prefer my other story?_ Please, give me an honest opinion. **

**If you have not seen my other story, it is a friendship/romance.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys are having an absolutely wonderful day wherever you are. If you're not... ( _Insert encouraging phrase here)_!**

 **Oh, and next chapter, we are going a bit more into what Gray and Erza are doing, because they are the main characters of this story, too.  
**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	10. Magnolia

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"Did you find anything, Gray?" Erza asked as she sat on the reception desk, shuffling through papers from almost forty years ago.

"Nope, nothing yet." He said as he looked through his stack. He doesn't exactly know what they were expecting to find, because it would be a bit weird if they just kept a bunch of papers of the missing people in a receptionist's desk. "What was the name of that little girl that Lucy was talking about?" He asked.

"Uh...Asuka, if I remember correctly. She was the girl with the music box." Erza answered. She flipped through a few more pages before she came across one particular sheet that seemed to have interested her. "I think I may have found something." Erza said, brushing some of her scarlet hair to the side. Gray came over to look over her shoulder.

Erza was holding up some photos. Their color was faded and the picture was blurry, but that was about the best quality you could get at the time. There were exactly five pictures. There was one of the little girl Asuka and who Erza assumed was the rest of her family.

The second picture was of a man with long greenish hair that reached down to his mid-back and a large, blood red-colored trench coat. He had a stoic look on his face, not frowning, but not a trace of happiness.

The third picture was of a young woman with long brown hair and glasses. She was wearing a very outgoing dress at the time, with sparkles and glitter everywhere on the dress. Her makeup looked professionally done. To Gray, she looked like one of those old movie stars.

The fourth was of another man, but it was unclear what he actually looked like because he was wearing some sort of knight helmet. He was also sticking his tongue out in the picture, which made Erza mutter 'how indecent.'

The fifth and final picture was of a little old man and a taller blonde man. The little man was on the tall man's shoulders with a bright grin, and the blonde man looked like he was struggling not to smile, just a little. Gray was about to give a snarky comment about the old man's height, but Erza's glare shut him up immediately. If it were just the pictures alone, there wouldn't be anything weird about them. But there was alone thing that was a little worrying.

They all had a red mark through their heads.

"Didn't Lucy say that eight people went missing?" Gray asked, placing his fingers on his chin.

"I believe so. Is there anything about their names?" Erza asked searching through the papers. Gray was looking around the walls was looking around the walls for some sort of identification or R.I.P signs for the people who died. That is until he spotted something on the wall opposite to the receptionist's desk.

"Hey, look at that." Gray said, pointing to a painting of the little man in a Navy uniform. "Do you think that could be the captain? It's the same little man as in the picture." He asked.

"I believe so." Erza said. "So even the captain was one of the ones who were taken." Erza muttered to herself, staring at the picture.

 _Do we have any food left?_ Gray asked himself, scratching his stomach. "Hey Erza, I'm heading back to where our stuff is. Do you want me to bring you back any food?" Gray asked. Erza shook her head, not looking at him and focusing on the pictures that she was holding. Gray just shrugged as he headed down the large hall towards the lounge. While he was, he unconsciously stripped off his shirt and swung it over his shoulder while he whistled a little tune. It was his default tune, and before, he had to rack his brain to try to figure out where exactly he had heard it.

One month ago, he remembered it. It was the tune that his older sister, Ultear, used to play for him on the cello when he was little. He looked up to his sister like the sun. Well, he and his brother, Lyon. She was five years older than him, and even though she teased and made fun of him, she had the most intense want to protect him and his brother.

That was how she died.

Some mental freak broke into the building they were in, six years ago. Ultear told him to be a big boy and phone the police, and that nothing would go wrong because she would cover him. While he made a run for the closest phone, she made sure that he was safe. What she didn't know was that the man had a gun. And that was how it ended.

But Gray still whistled this tune. It was a memory of her that he would never let go. It was a memory that he would treasure forever. It didn't make him sad anymore, no, it gave him happy memories of her. Yes, he was sad that she was gone, but she would always live on through him and his brother. Always watching over them to make sure that they would get out of trouble.

But there are times, like this one, where he thinks that she is up in heaven laughing her ass off at his predicament.

Gray smiled as he thought about this. He always liked hearing his sister laugh, even though when he was younger, he would never admit it, because most of her laughs came from when she and Lyon teamed up to tease him. He was, after all, the youngest of the family.

 _But only by thirteen months!_ He scowled as he thought of this.

Anyway, there were two things that Ultear said before she...passed away. The first thing she said was directed to Lyon. He was a bit of a shy and awkward kid, and Ultear told him that he should lighten up and go outside his tiny box. She gave him a gentle pat on the head and kissed his cheek. Lyon didn't wash that cheek for a month.

The last thing she said was directed to him. She told him to always live on. She knew that he was an emotional boy and his emotions would often get unstable, even though he tried to hide it. Lyon, Ultear, and his mother, Ur, were his anchors to life. Otherwise, he would be living life as nothing but a zombie. She didn't tell him to live on because she thought that he would kill himself, she said this because she wanted him to find a new inspiration in life other than his family.

That was how he met Lucy, Erza, and Natsu. Three friends that he would never replace for the world.

And because that he was stuck here with the three people that he treasures the most, that are not part of his family, he knew that they would get out somehow. After all, none of them ever give up. And surely, his sister is still watching over him.

He broke out of his trance once he saw that he was at the stairs that led to the lounge. He climbed them and settled down next to his pack.

"Sweet! I'm so happy none of these are gone!" He said as he opened a pack of Oreo's.

He had to get off this ship. He wasn't so stupid to think that all of this junk food was good for him.

* * *

Erza had learned all of the names of the people that went missing. She breathed a sigh of relief as she wiped a bit of sweat from her brow, pleased with her work. She then pulled her thick coat a bit closer, surprised about how cold it was. She checked her phone again. It was seven in the morning. She looked at her screensaver for her lock screen. It was a picture of her and Jellal, taken by Lucy. They were both laughing, oblivious to the camera. She had drawn a mustache on him in bright blue frosting and he had absolutely covered her in flour, making her hair look not-so scarlet. She remembered this moment. It was the time that she and Jellal decided that they would bake cookies for the seniors at the senior center that they volunteered at for Christmas.

Needless to say, they just ended up buying them all snow globes.

She bit her lip, but smiled anyway. She missed him dearly, even though she has only been away from him for a few days. But in those few days, she wondered if she would ever see him again. She doesn't dare show it though, considering the rest are probably already so scared. Well, Natsu is probably not that scared.

She set the pictures down on the desk and took out a pen, that really surprisingly had ink, and wrote down all the names that she had found: Asuka, Bisca, Alzack, Evergreen, Bickslow, Laxus, Freed, and Makarov. Erza gave her self a pat of the back, folded the paper, and put it in her pocket. She was about to leave, when she heard knocking on the door opposite of the exit.

If there was one thing that really pissed Erza off about horror movies, it would be that all of the main characters are so stupid. No one will go up to a door that is being knocked on by a supposed ghost. All of her friends know for a fact that playing pranks wasn't acceptable here, especially in these kinds of situations. Erza knew to never go towards a knocking sound, no matter how intriguing it was.

She was one of the top three smartest students in Fairy Tail High, after all.

The knock came again, but louder this time. Erza took this as a sign to leave. To run to where her friends would be to make sure that they were alright. There was strength in numbers, after all. Erza quietly opened the door and bolted out, not even looking back to see if whatever was knocking came out of the other door. She ran through the hallways to the lounge, the layout of the area already installed into her mind.

Then, she heard a crash.

* * *

Gray was chowing down on Oreo's, already on his fifteenth or sixteenth one. He just felt like going home and taking a nap, and probably a really nice, long shower. Oh, that sounded nice.

It was then that Gray decided that it was probably time to leave to go help Erza. He would bring some of the creamy delights for her too, since she would probably want some kind of sugar in her system. **(They are creamy, right? I've never had an Oreo)**

He started back down the hallway, looking at all of the paintings that he didn't pay attention to before. Most of them were of the sea, obviously, with a pretty golden and pinkish horizon. Some of them were just of nature on the mainland. Golden grass of a prairie with roaming buffalo.

 _Pfft, buffalo._ Gray thought as he shook his head. He remembered _that_ clearly. Poor Lucy...

He wasn't able to continue his thoughts when he heard a loud crash in the direction he was walking in. He ran towards it, knowing Erza might be there. He turned a corner, just to have Erza run into him.

"Whoa Erza! Where's the fire?" Gray asked, but he didn't get an answer as he was quickly pushed down by Erza, only for a bullet to pierce the wall, directly where his head was. "Holy shit! Are we getting shot at?" Gray asked. His answer was a shot on the floor between his legs while he was sitting down. He quickly pulled in his legs to protect his...erm, you know.

"Did that answer your question? Now let's go." She commanded as she started to drag him, even before he stood up. They ran to dodge the bullets, which were knocking down some paintings in an attempt to get them in the head.

Erza was panting as she turned another corner. She knew that the thing following them was probably close behind, based on the male cackle that she was sure didn't come from Gray. She covered her neck with her hands, trying to protect her vertebrae and instructed Gray to do the same.

It was when one painting was knocked down in front of her she found an escape route. There was a gaping hole, not one that was done by accident, but one that was built into the ship. She quickly climbed in, and motioned Gray to come with her. He crawled in the cramped space as well, while Erza pulled up the painting, back onto the nail to hide the hole.

"Do you think...we lost it?" Gray asked, out of breath.

"Yes...I believe so." Erza said, trying to hide the fact that she was panting. "What I would not do for some sugar right now." Then, an Oreo packet landed in her lap. "Thanks." She said gratefully.

"Anytime." Gray replied. "So, let's follow this thing as see where it goes." Gray said, starting to crawl through the hole. Erza followed behind him, until Gray ungracefully fell out of the hole on the other side. Now that Erza knew that the little tunnel ended there, she easily got out of the tunnel, not caring that she stepped on Gray's stomach with her boots, making him groan in pain.

"Where are we?" Erza asked, looking around the dark room. She brought out her flashlight and turned it on. The light was dim because there was barely any battery, but it was better than a dark room. Gray stood up after getting over his pain and turned on his flashlight as well. His light was a bit brighter than hers.

"I'm not sure." Gray said as he shined his flashlight across the room. "Hey, take a look at this!" Gray said as he pointed his flashlight to the middle of one of the walls. It was a painting, but it felt more than that. It was a mural of a flower, but this one had so many petals. Erza remembered seeing a flower like this before, based on the curve of the petals and the white color, she could assume that it was a magnolia.

"Do you feel something weird coming off this?" Erza asked Gray. He nodded his head, still staring at it. He then turned to her.

"We should go, just to make sure that Natsu and Lucy are alright. We'll come back with them later." He said.

"You don't think that the thing that was shooting at us before is still out there, do you?" Erza asked.

"Well, we'll never know unless we go out there. Besides, this place doesn't feel the safest either."

"Alright, let's go." Erza said.

She let Gray get in the tunnel first, and she followed soon after. But just after she took one more look at the magnolia.

 **Hey guys! I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this chapter! I felt as if Gray and Erza were getting neglected as characters at times, so this was a chapter all about them. We discover something very important in this chapter, and it will play a big role to the rest of the story.**

 **Please comment and like if you enjoyed it, and if you didn't, please review to tell me how I could make it better.**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are! Bye~!**


	11. Aggressive

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"So that means that there are ten keys left to find, right?" Natsu asked, trying to clarify the situation.

"Yes, we have to find that, plus this." Lucy said, pointing to the drawing of the huge flower.

Natsu scratched his head and groaned. "That's so much work!" Lucy gave him a playful glare.

"Do you want to get off this ship or not?" She asked him. He shrugged his shoulders, not really caring.

"I don't know. This place _is_ pretty cool." Natsu said, placing a hand on his chin.

Lucy sighed. If there was one thing she both loved and hated about her best friend, it was his sense of adventure. "If we don't get out of here, I can't make you your extra extra spicy chicken anymore." She said, trying to convince him. His eyes immediately lit up with a newfound determination.

"We have to get out of here! Let's find those keys!" He yelled, racing out of the small room.

Lucy rolled her eyes at him, but then noticed that she was all alone, and the candle light was dimming, limiting her vision that was her only assurance that she wouldn't fall over her feet. "You idiot! Wait for me!" She said, getting up and limping towards the little door.

* * *

Natsu rubbed his head. He had been in such a rush to find those new keys that he didn't notice that he left Lucy down in the hatch. Before he could go back and get her, she had emerged from the kitchen doorway. She half-heartedly glared at him, but still mumbled that she forgave him nonetheless. For that, he was super grateful. He didn't know what he would do if Lucy was mad at him.

He then offered Lucy a piggy-back ride, which this time, she didn't refuse considering that she was tired from limping so far since she hadn't used her feet for a while. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into his hair, making his cheeks turn the color of his bubblegum pink hair. He felt her breath on his neck, and he shivered a little bit for a reason he knows not. Or...he just might.

Lucy seemed to feel that shiver, considering that she was on his back. "Natsu, is something wrong?" She asked.

"N-nothings wrong. It's just...I feel a...temperature change...yeah, a temperature change!" Natsu lied. Lucy looked as if she didn't believe him, but then looked around.

"I don't feel anything." She said. _Shit,_ Natsu thought, _I didn't think of that._

"Well...it might be just a hallucination. You know...none of us have had much sleep." Natsu said, his voice now more firm. Lucy nodded her head in understanding, but then looked at him in worry.

"Are you sure that you're alright, Natsu?" She asked, rubbing his shoulder. He felt a small burn right where she touched, making him take in a large, deep breath to try to act like nothing had changed.

"I'm fine, Luce. You don't need to worry about me." Lucy looked at him with a small, but kind smile.

"I know, but I need to make sure that you're alright." She said, laying her head back down on his shoulder blade. "I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you." She mumbled before she pressed a small kiss to his temple like he usually did with her.

Right when he felt his body start to cool down, it heated back up in an instant. It was true, he was the one who started these chaste kisses on places like the forehead and cheek, but he did it to be casual. Everyone had taken it the wrong way, which he and Lucy had gotten pretty fed up with denying. It was sometime later that he realized that he just wanted to give a few more hugs and kisses. He just wanted to be around her, like he knew that she wanted to be around him. It was during that time that he found out, no matter how dense others might think he is **(He still is pretty dense)** , that his feelings for his best friend might have a stronger bond than he thought.

That was why he was still beating himself up on how she got hurt before. He told her that nothing would happen to her because he was there, not that she wasn't capable of taking care of herself, but he had broken that vow to her, and he had not felt any worse feeling.

Well, except with what happened with the buffalo...

Considering that it was his fault.

He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a low rumble from behind him. He cocked his head to the side a little to see that Lucy's cheeks were a light shade of pink and she had unhooked one arm from around his neck to lightly grab her stomach. Natsu let out a soft laugh. "Guess someone's hungry, eh?" He asked as he smirked. Lucy lightly slapped his shoulder.

Then, a louder, more obnoxious rumble emitted from his stomach. "That makes two of us, doesn't it?" Lucy said as she let out a giggle. But instead of getting embarrassed like she did, Natsu just grinned and started walking faster. "Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Don't you feel scared that a ghost or something could just pop out at us at any time?" Lucy asked. She expected someone like Natsu to just shrug his shoulders and say 'No, that's pretty cool', but Natsu actually looked as if he was contemplating her question. She just waited patiently, not seeing a reason to rush him.

"To tell you the truth," he started, "I'm not really scared for myself, but that doesn't mean that I'm not scared. I'm scared for Erza and even that damned stripper. Especially you, I'm the most scared about your well being." He said, not looking at her.

Lucy wasn't going to question this, because she knew that no matter what she said, that fact wasn't going to change. He was always worried about her, just as she was always worried about him.

* * *

They got back to the base to find that Erza and Gray were not there. They concluded that they were probably still collecting information about the missing people. Natsu set Lucy down on their little makeshift bed and sat next to her, hugging one of his legs. Lucy grabbed the journal that she left there and started flipping through it.

"Hey Luce?"

"Yeah Natsu?"

"Do you think the thing that attacked you this morning is dead?" He asked.

Lucy contemplated this for a second. "Well, obviously it's dead. Do you mean to ask if we'll never see it again?" Natsu nodded. "I'm...not sure at all. All I know is that these," she held up one of the two golden keys, "warded them away from me. I can't be sure if it's gone for good."

"You know, Lucy. We should start looking for the places where we've seen these ghosts." Natsu said. Lucy looked at him confused.

"Why would we do that?" She asked.

"Well, a ghost was in the chest that held the two keys, right? Well, that could mean that the ghost was guarding them. That means that if the the ghosts that we have encountered are guarding keys, then the keys will be close to where they are and they attacked us because they didn't want us getting them, right?" Natsu inquired. Lucy stared at him with wide eyes, amazed that he could come to such an analytical conclusion.

"Oh my God, Natsu. That's absolutely brilliant!" Lucy said, putting on her brightest and most genuine smile. Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"Are you saying that I'm not brilliant all the time?" Natsu asked. Lucy just ignored the question, trying to think of the places where they both have seen a ghost. Lucy snapped her fingers and then turned to look at him. "The chandelier, that's a good place to start!"

"Can we do it some other time? I'm tired." Lucy shot him a pointed stare. "Or we could go now, that's cool too..." Natsu trailed off. Lucy's stare vanished and was replaced by a bright smile and a small giggle.

"I'll tell you what. You can rest until Erza and Gray come back, then we can go off together." Lucy said. Natsu sighed in relief.

"Thank God!" Natsu said as he flopped backwards onto his back with his head on Lucy's lap. Lucy blushed a little, but half-heartedly tried to shove him off.

"Hey! Who said that you could use my lap as a pillow?" Lucy asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. Natsu just looked up at her with sad eyes and a downcast face.

Damn him.

"Okay fine, you can stay there." Lucy groaned. Natsu smiled, bearing his fanged teeth at her while doing so. He then closed his eyes for a long awaited nap.

 _"Pretty girl."_ A voice whispered. Lucy shot her head up and looked around the room. Seeing as there was nothing there, she took small, deep breaths to try to calm her breathing.

"Lucy, you okay?" Natsu asked, cracking one eye open. Lucy looked down at him and nodded her head, letting him go to sleep once again.

There was something there, she was sure of it.

 _"It's play time!"_ The voice said childishly. Lucy's body jolted in surprise, forcing Natsu's head off her lap. She was absolutely sure she didn't hallucinate it this time. And she felt as if it was right behind her.

"Ow! What the hell is your problem, Lucy!?" Natsu yelled at her, but Lucy paid him no attention. Instead, her eyes were focused on the figure before her. It was a shadow, like the one she had encountered before, but this one was smaller, like a child. There was no doubt in Lucy's mind that this is what had become of Asuka Connell.

The figure's only distinguishable features would be the red eyes and the creepy white smile, which right now was stretched into a wide, malicious grin. Asuka's eyes narrowed at Lucy, almost like she was taunting her.

 _"It's time to play~!"_ The ghost said in a sing-song voice. By now, Natsu had grown out of his sleepiness and registered the situation. He crouched in front of Lucy's sitting form to block her, but she just grabbed onto his shoulder.

"Hang on Natsu, I want to try something." Natsu looked hesitant for a moment, like always, but this time, he let Lucy do her thing. There was really no point holding her back from doing something that could give them valuable information.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Natsu could be rational!

Lucy grabbed the two golden keys from her back pocket and held them out to Asuka. Asuka's eyes turned into dark red circles and her grin spread out even wider. "You want to play with these?" Lucy asked. The ghost nodded their head rapidly as Asuka started to stalk towards Lucy, her eyes narrowing into slits. "Then let's play catch!" Lucy said as she threw one of the keys directly into Asuka's waiting arms. However, once it touched her shadowed skin, she let out a shrill scream as the key glowed a bright yellow. Asuka then sunk into the ground, leaving no trace that she was there behind. The golden key fell to the carpeted floor of the lounge.

"Wow," Natsu breathed from behind her. "that was pretty bad ass!" Natsu said as he pumped his fist in the air.

"It was terrifying if anything!" Lucy said as she walked over to pick up the key. "But it seems as if this damn music box is getting more and more restless." Lucy concluded. She then turned to Natsu. "We have to find these keys as quickly as we can, before it gets us."

"That was the plan all along, wasn't it?" Natsu said with a wide smile. Lucy smiled back, and walked up to him.

"One more thing, Natsu." Natsu cocked his head to the side in confusion,, but didn't say anything before Lucy punched him in the stomach. It was a hard punch, but he knew for a fact that she didn't mean to hurt him _that_ much. His breath was nearly knocked out.

"Geez, what the hell was that?" Natsu said as he rubbed his stomach. Lucy had to fight the urge to wince because she ended up punching his hard six-pack abs and that actually hurt a lot.

"For putting something like this on your bucket list." Lucy said, rubbing his head.

 **Hello again! I really hope that you enjoy this chapter, but I would understand if you didn't considering that this chapter was just a build up chapter for what is to come and not much happened. I don't know, I haven't been very motivated to write anymore considering school and everything, but I'm not a person that just stops a story unless it had truly lost my interest, and I still feel like this story could go somewhere. So, I shall continue it.**

 **Leave a review of what you thought. Any constructive criticism is welcome, and even though it is not as welcome, yo can put destructive criticism also.**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are and that they are having a good time in school, work, or anywhere else you might be!**


	12. Struck

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

It wasn't long until Erza and Gray came through the door and into the lounge. Lucy was scanning the journal again, even though she had seen it a million times. Natsu was looking at two chip bags, deciding whether to eat the Fire Dragon Pepper Flavor or the Lava chili flavor. Decisions, decisions.

"Hey, you two." Gray greeted. Lucy's head immediately shot up from the journal, and Natsu took his eyes off his chip bags for just a second before throwing one bag of chips into his bag and eating the Fire Dragon Pepper flavor, the crunching in his mouth sounding like someone stepping on broken glass.

"We have something to tell you!" Lucy and Gray said at the same time.

"Oh, sorry. Go ahead, you first." Lucy offered.

"No, no, ladies first." Gray replied.

"Don't worry, I can wait." Lucy insisted.

"No, please, you go first."

"It's alright, you can go first."

"No, you can go-" Gray started, but was rudely interrupted by Natsu.

"You know what? _I'll_ go first." Natsu said proudly. Gray muttered curses to him under his breath and Lucy rolled her eyes at him. "We found a way to get off of this floating hellhole. We just have to find a bunch of these things," Natsu said, picking up Lucy's Virgo key, "and place them in this," he held up the drawing of the large Magnolia, "and _tada!_ we're back home and Lucy can cook me fire chicken!" Natsu said the last part with a dreamy look on his face. Lucy hit him over the head with the journal.

"Is that all you can think about!?" She yelled at him. Erza came up and sat down next to Lucy.

"Hang on, allow me to see that drawing again." Erza said, pointing to the sketch near Natsu's feet. Natsu hastily handed it to her, not wanting to face Erza's impatient wrath. The scarlet beauty examined the drawing, and concluded that it was the same image that they found in the wall behind that painting.

"What is this supposed to be used for exactly?" Erza asked Lucy. Lucy racked her brain a little before flipping through some pages in the journal, before coming upon the article she had been wanting.

"It says here that the big Magnolia has a small silver crank-like-key in the middle. To get to that key, we have to find twelve of these keys, and put them in the key holes. Once we replace the crank on the music box, then the souls will be cleansed and we're home free." Lucy explained.

"Do you know where the rest of the keys are?" Gray asked.

Lucy shook her head solemnly. "No. Captain Makarov made sure to hide them so that they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands." Lucy said, but she brightened up a little on the next part. "But Natsu had this genius idea that the keys would be in the places where we've seen ghost happenings." Lucy said. Natsu looked at Gray smugly, which Gray just scoffed at.

"I don't believe that it is morally correct to have 'Natsu' and 'genius' in the same sentence without a negative word in between." Gray said nonchalantly.

"What was that, Popsicle Panties?" Natsu said, standing up and butting heads with Gray. Lightning flashed between their eyes.

"You heard me Fire Crotch!" Gray argued. Erza looked at them and sighed, too tired to deal with their childish antics.

 _It doesn't matter, because those two are always telling me that they are great friends. I'm sure they are just fueling their fighting spirit._ Erza thought as she nodded in approval.

" _Anyway_ ," Lucy said sternly, making Gray and Natsu stop their fight and give her their full attention. "Our main objective is to find all of the keys and this big flower thing and get out of here before all of us get our souls sucked out."

"Well, we can check the flower thing off of our list, because Erza and I already found it!" Gray said proudly. Natsu huffed and just walked away from him.

Lucy looked at him with wide eyes. "Really? Well, that makes our job a bit easier. However, we still have ten of these keys to find, so we should do it as quickly as possible." Lucy said.

"So what? Are we going to split up or something?" Gray asked.

"No, I don't think that it's a good idea if we do. The spirits are getting more aggresive, and there's strength in numbers." Erza said.

"Alright, now that that's settled, where to first?" Gray asked Lucy.

Lucy walked over to the edge of the balcony and looked down at the shards of the chandelier. Looking at it, it doesn't look like anything key-like could be in there, but there was no way that they could be sure. "Down there. I'm sure that the chandelier has at least one." Lucy said, looking back at her friends.

"Oh, then if it is right behind us, I might as well just stay here and relax." Gray said, making himself comfortable on the floor.

"Oh no, stripper! You're coming with us." Natsu said as he picked Gray up by the bicep. He would have preferred to avoid physical contact with him and grab him by the shirt, but it seemed as though at the moment, it was nonexistent.

* * *

"Are you sure that the keys are in the chandelier? Because what if we get cuts for nothing?" Gray asked.

"I'm sure that their here. And I'm sure that," she started, pointing to the word _Chandelier_ that was still on the wall, "is supposed to be some sort of clue."

"Alright then, who will be the one who checks?" Natsu asked. His three best friends looked directly at him. "WHY?" He asked.

"I already have injured feet." Lucy said.

"I believe that it will be important that my hands are still capable of moving." Erza said, shrugging.

"I want to see you get hurt." Gray replied. Natsu was about to tackle him down when Lucy stopped him.

"Hang on Natsu. How about I hold your hand to make sure you don't fall down while you search the chandelier?" Lucy offered. She slipped her dainty hand into Natsu strong one. Natsu smiled down at her and squeezed her hand before dragging her along while she limped slowly behind. Erza shot a knowing look in their direction and Gray just rolled his eyes, both of them knowing Natsu's feelings for Lucy.

The crunching of glass under their feet was a horrible sound. Lucy stood her ground as she held his hand, making sure that he won't fall. When Natsu got to the broken chandelier, he tried to find the best possible way he could stick his hand through the broken shards without cutting his hand off. He found an open spot between two glass beads and tried to maneuver his hand through there.

"Careful, Natsu." Lucy whispered as she know held onto his arms since both of their hands were getting quite clammy.

Natsu tried to feel his way into the chandelier, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Then suddenly, he heard a little jingle of bronze inside, which he probably couldn't have heard if his ears were not as good as they were. He quickly latched onto these objects, pulling them out of the chandelier, but cutting himself a little in the process. It wasn't too bad. The cut was about a couple centimeters long and about as deep as a paper cut. He then looked at the two sharp objects in his hand as he caught the scent of metal, and saw that there were two different keys in his hand. He had found them! Only eight keys left to find.

"Natsu! Great job!" Lucy exclaimed. Natsu handed the keys to her as they walked hand-in-hand off the broken glass. Lucy then took the time to examine the metal objects that brought them two steps closer to getting out of there. "It's Taurus! And Cancer!" She yelled happily.

"Brilliant effort, Natsu!" Erza said as she roughly pat him on the back. Natsu cringed, but still nodded his head in thanks. Lucy looked up at him and gave him a face-splitting smile, the one that was so bright, the sun paled in comparison. That was the smile that she reserved only for him.

Lucy then started to feel something wet and warm drip onto her hand. She looked down at her and Natsu's intertwined hands, and saw the small cut on his finger with a trickle of blood coming from it. "Oh Natsu, you're hurt." Natsu followed her gaze and then smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's nothing big, it doesn't even hurt." That didn't seem to be enough to convince Lucy. She just sat him down next to her so she could clean his cut with a cotton ball that she had in her bag. Once most of the blood was gone, she dug into her backpack for a small band-aid.

There was something weird about Lucy, though. Not that she wasn't weird always, but she seemed to have been hesitating to do something. Natsu finally realized what it was when Lucy bent her head down and kissed his finger, right where the cut was.

Natsu felt heat rush to his face, and when Lucy pulled away, he was glad to see that he wasn't the only one. Lucy's face had a red tint to it, but that didn't stop her from keeping a straight face and placing the bandage onto him. Natsu's breath started to quicken as the place where her lips touched him started to heat up, and he thought that he felt his pulse right there.

 _God Lucy, stop doing these kinds of things to me!_ Natsu thought.

"There we go...all fixed." Lucy said softly, averting her eyes from his. He then snapped out of his trance and helped her up, keeping her in his hold for a few moments longer than necessary.

"I'm sorry to ruin the precious moment," Gray deadpanned, "but I want to find the rest of these keys so we can GTFO as soon as possible."

"Y-yeah. We should get going." Lucy said as she cleared her throat. She then limped towards the exit, Natsu by her side the whole time.

"Alright Lucy, where to next?" Erza asked as the four of them exited the ballroom and traveled through the hall.

"Hmm, maybe the crankshafts would be our best bet." Erza nodded in understanding. Gray stretched his arms.

"Alright, let's g-" Gray couldn't finish his sentence before a lightning bolt struck through the hallway and directly onto Gray's chest. He fell backwards as the three other teens went to catch him.

Their arms cushioned his fall, but he was already unconscious. With a large burn mark on his chest.

 **Hello again. Sorry for _another_ cliffhanger, but I am working on the next chapter as you read this so that should be out soon. **

**Question for you guys: Did any of you notice that throughout all of these chapters, only three days have passed?**

 **Thank you so much for reading! And as always, I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are!**


	13. Fragment

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"Gray! Gray, can you hear me?" Lucy called out, shaking him only the tiniest bit. "Come on, Gray. Wake up!" Lucy said, feeling so frightened for her friend.

Natsu cursed under his breath. Gray wasn't moving, nor was he responding. He could feel Lucy's fear radiating off of her, and he could practically hear her rapid heartbeat. He placed his hand on Gray's arm, somehow thinking that he will somehow slip out of his sleep-induced state if he did.

"Erza?" Natsu asked, still looking at Gray in worry. Erza was checking his pulse and the burn mark on his chest. She sat up straight and shook her head.

"He seems to be in some sort of paralyzed state. His heartbeat's okay, but his breathing has slowed down exponentially." She concluded.

"Oh boy, thank God." Lucy said as she placed her hand on her chest, breathing out a sigh of relief. Natsu pulled her into a hug, letting out a silent breath that he didn't know he was holding. No matter how much Natsu and Gray fight and how much they push each other's buttons, they were still brothers in the end. And _nothing_ is going to change that.

"Now where the hell did the lightning come from!?" Natsu asked, immediately on guard.

"It might have been another ghost." Lucy said, shaking a little. She was right then. The ghosts are now really out to kill them. "There's absolutely nowhere safe now!" Lucy cried.

"Lucy's right. We can't take any chances with resting or anything. But...," Erza started, putting a hand on her chin. "there has to be some place on this ship that's safe. Some place that we can go to."

"How about we try that old man's hatch. You haven't been there, have you Erza?" Erza shook her head. "Alright, then let's get down there." Natsu finished. He hoisted Gray onto his back, making sure not to hurt him. Gray's body was stiff and unresponsive, and it made Natsu want to wince in worry, but he would rather get shocked in the chest like he did than show it.

The three teens continued their way down the hallway and towards the kitchen. Lucy felt some sort of force around them, and she felt as though it was getting a bit easier to breathe on this stuffy ship. It was when she turned to the wall next to her that she finally noticed.

"Oh my God." Lucy whispered as she stared at the wall, or what was left of the wall. Natsu and Erza turned around to see what held Lucy up, and when they saw it, they immediately understood why she was so shocked.

The metal of the wall was tearing apart, evaporating into the air as if it was nothing.

"What's happening?" Natsu asked. Lucy shook her head, showing that she had no clue. Erza narrowed her eyes at what used to be the wall, and what was now sight of the cold fog that is surrounding the ship. She looked around at the other walls as well, seeing that they were chipping off little by little as well.

"We have to go. Now." Erza commanded as she fast-walked towards the kitchen, Lucy and Natsu tagging behind her. "Alright, now where is this secret hatch?" She asked, keeping her eyes trained on the counter island that seemed to be disappearing as well.

Natsu went to the floor beside the stove, lifting it to reveal a passage way down to Makarov's study. He went down first, making sure that it was okay before the girls came down.

"Yeah, it's okay, you can come down." Natsu said as he motioned them towards him. Erza entered after that with Lucy right behind her. When Lucy got off the ladder, she made sure to put all of her weight on her uninjured foot. They walked a little father before they came to Makarov's study. They all crawled through the door, making sure to close it afterwards. Their skin immediately felt warmer, as if a furnace had been lit in the small room.

"So Erza, do you want to explain to us why you were so insistent that we get down here so quickly?" Lucy asked. Natsu took Gray over to the couch across from the desk and sat down next to him.

"Yeah, and why was the wall disappearing?" Natsu added. Erza sighed as she took a seat of the captain's desk chair.

"Well, I obviously don't know. But if I'm not mistaken, I think that the ship might be coming apart, due to the ghosts." Erza explained.

"Isn't that good, though? I mean, if the ship disappears, that means we can get off, right?" Natsu asked.

"No. Remember, the fog won't lift until we free those souls. Basically, if the ship disappears before we free them, we are going to be stuck in some kind of paradox for the rest of out lives."

"Well...that's reassuring..." Lucy said with a downcast expression.

"But that just gives us more motivation to work faster!" Natsu said pumping his fist in the air.

"Yeah, you're right. So, what's our next move?" Lucy asked.

"Well, we don't know where the rest of the keys are, so we have to look diligently." Erza said, crossing her arms. She suddenly shot her head up to look at the two of them. "Do you two know where that music box is?" She asked.

"Well, it's not like it could grow legs. It's probably still in that room with all the covered junk where we first found it." Lucy replied.

"Let's go there. There's something that I must see." Erza said.

"What about the stripper?" Natsu asked, looking at the still unconscious Gray.

"We must take him with us. We cannot risk this room disappearing with him in it." Natsu nodded at Erza's statement and went to pick him up, putting him on his back.

"Jeez, Ice Breath stinks!" Natsu said, scrunching his nose.

"Well, it's not like you smell like a meadow either Natsu." Lucy retorted.

* * *

Lucy, Erza, Natsu, and Gray, who was being carried on Natsu's back, all made their way down to that storage room, keeping an eye out for disappearing parts of the ship. Once they reached the room, they entered cautiously, as if a ghost was going to jump out at them at any minute. The room had been exactly as they had left it. All the furniture and other items were all covered by their respective sheets. The room still gave off a slightly eerie vibe that was not uncommon to the group anymore.

Erza started looking around, examining every part of the room, trying to find something.

"What is she doing?" Natsu asked.

Lucy shrugged. "I'm not too sure." She said. She then turned to Natsu. "Anyway, while Erza is handling...whatever she is handling, we should look around to see if there are any keys here." Natsu nodded as he set Gray down onto a covered couch.

"Alright. But we," he started as he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers. "are sticking together." He stated. It wasn't a suggestion, it was a command.

Lucy blushed under the intense gaze that he was giving her, but squeezed his hand anyway. "Okay, let's find them together."

They also started searching. Meanwhile, Erza had done her full search. Her inference was correct.

The music box was not there.

Lucy was right, it's not like it could grow legs, but another ghost must be taking it and bringing it closer to wherever they were. Now that she thinks about it, there have been a lot more attacks on them by the ghost, but the music box has made no attempt on trying to lure them in. Erza closed her eyes and contemplated this. It astounded her that an inanimate object can be such a lethal player in a game, as if it had a mind of it's own. This must of been one hell of a curse.

Lucy looked under _another_ couch. Her fifth one to be exact. But still, nothing. It was truly saddening that she wasn't finding anything, but she wouldn't give up. She could let even one spot go unchecked because, knowing their luck, that's the spot where the keys are held. "Find anything, Natsu?" Lucy asked. She looked over to see him looking through some old comic book, grinning at it. "Natsu!" Natsu's head immediately shot up to look at her.

"Sorry Luce." Natsu said dejectedly as he put the comic book down.

"Jeez, we've already checked most of the room. Where could the keys be!?" Lucy asked. Natsu scratched his head a couple of times.

"Well, maybe it's in a place that isn't so easy to find. I mean, the other two keys were inside a chandelier." Natsu mentioned. Lucy nodded her head, biting her thumb in concentration.

 _But they could be anywhere._ She thought as she looked around the room. Her eyes then landed on a tall bookcase. Dozens upon dozens of books were lined up in neat rows, and a thick layer of gray dust covered them all. "Hey Natsu?" She asked to catch his attention. "Let's check out the bookcase." She said, pointing to it.

Natsu nodded. "Okay. I'll get the books on the top shelf because you are too small to reach them." Lucy smacked his arm. "Ouch! It's the truth!" Lucy ignored that.

They started searching around, behind, and even in the books, but they couldn't find anything that looked like a key. That was when Lucy unearthed another book from the shelf.

And one of the ghosts jumped out at her.

Lucy shrieked as she fell on her butt. The dark haze of which she assumed was a ghost circled around her before coming up behind her, with what looked like a sword in it's hands.

"Lucy!" She heard Natsu scream, but he was too late because the sword already swung onto her. Unconsciously, Lucy grabbed one of her four keys and used it to block. She heard a sound of metal clashing with metal and looked up, just to see that the key itself was blocking the long sword. She used the force of the key to push the sword away from her, making the dark figure stumble back a little, but it quickly gained it's composure, readying it's sword again.

 _Crap! I'm not handy with swordplay!_ Lucy thought as she stumbled back. That was when the key was swiped from her and the next blow from the ghost's sword was blocked by none other than Natsu. "Natsu!" Lucy said with wide eyes.

"Keep looking for the keys Lucy." He said as he tried to take a swing at the ghost with her key. "If this thing is here then there must be keys lying around too. Hurry! I'll try to hold him off." Natsu said, standing in front of her protectively.

Lucy felt very unsettled with leaving Natsu there, but there wasn't any other choice. "Alright. Here, take this." She said as she threw him another key, Taurus. He grabbed the key and held one in each of his hands. Lucy took off to look in the section that Natsu had not, while Natsu stared down the figure. It was impossible to say if the ghost was doing the same because the face was darkened, but the figure was still as if it was waiting for Natsu to make the first move.

Natsu would've been lying if he said that he was a little bit weirded out. He's never fought a ghost before. It's super cool that he's getting the chance to of course, but he doesn't have experience fighting something not living. If he didn't know better, he would think that the ghost couldn't hurt him, but he didn't want to take the chance.

The figure then lunged at him, and he held up the two keys like twin swords blocking an attack. He thought of when he used to play with mini plastic swords with Gray when he was little. _It's probably not much different._ He thought.

The figure swung at him from an angle that would surely cut off his head. He remembered Gray doing this as well as he ducked under it. His first impulse would be to kick the person off of their feet, but there was no chance of that happening, so he just took a swing at its leg with the key. The ghost shrieked, stumbling back with what looked like a pure white gash in its leg.

"Natsu, what's wrong!?" Erza asked as she came around the corner. This distracted Natsu for a second too long because the ghost had time to lunge at Natsu again, sending him to the ground. It was a weird feeling. He could feel a physical presence there, but at the same time, it wasn't there. The figure was once again towering over Natsu, the sword's tip pointing straight at it's chest. The keys that Natsu was hanging onto were now out of his reach as the figure stepped on his wrists, putting pressure on them which made Natsu wince.

But his motto is: never let your enemy see your pain.

That was when the sword descended upon him, right towards the middle of his chest. But still, he showed no fear nor pain, because if there was one thing he knew, it was that Erza was going to come to his aid, seeing as though she was right there.

And he was right, because the next thing he knew, Erza had pulled him out of the ghost's reach. Natsu retrieved the two keys again and handed one to Erza.

"Here. They work like swords." Erza smirked at that as she took the key from Natsu.

"I do not know who you are, ghost, but I must warn you," she started pointing the key at the hazy figure. "Titania has never lost a fencing match in her life. Prepare yourself!" She yelled as she lunged.

Meanwhile, Lucy was looking through the bookshelf, trying to find the keys which she knew were hidden somewhere in there.

"Lucy! Hurry up!" She heard Natsu yell. She didn't turn back to look at him as she picked up the pace, looking through the books at an even faster rate. She took another book off the shelf, a golden one with a title in fancy writing. She didn't pay any mind to that, though. She looked around where the book was placed in the bookshelf, but found nothing out of the ordinary. She was about to hastily put the book back and move onto the next one when she saw a glow from inside the book. She quickly flipped it open, only to see that there were no actual pages in the book, but just an indent which held the two things she was so happy to see. Two things that were giving off a shining gold light.

Aquarius and Scorpio.

Lucy didn't take any time to admire the intricate designs on her two new keys as she rushed to aid Erza and Natsu. When she got there, she could see that the figure had somehow conjured up an extra sword, and was now fighting both Natsu and Erza with it. Lucy noticed the gash on its leg, and how it was drooping with what looked like a white liquid, but none of it seemed to be really be tangible. Lucy tried to find an opening, which happened to be in the back of it. She scurried around the figure as it was too occupied with Erza and Natsu. Erza saw Lucy behind the figure, and Lucy pleaded with her eyes to keep quiet, to which Erza just turned back to the ghost and started to push her weight against it.

Lucy broke out into a run as she rammed both Scorpio and Aquarius into the ghost's back, making it let out a inhuman scream with terror. Natsu had to cover his sensitive ears because of the noise and Erza winced. Lucy then pulled the keys out with all of her might and the figure's dark haze evaporated before completely disappearing. Lucy took in a shaky breath as she lowered her hands, gripping the two keys until her knuckles turned white.

"Are you guys okay?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, I am. That was quite the fight." Erza said as she handed her key back to Lucy. Lucy nodded as she pat Erza on the shoulder. She then turned to Natsu, who's face was shadowed by his bangs. His shoulders started to shake.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked cautiously as she approached him. That was when Natsu's head shot up and burst out in hysterical laughter. Laughter that didn't stop for at least a minute, making Lucy and Erza sweatdrop.

Natsu finished his last few chuckles before he stood up straight. "Man, that was the best fight I've _ever_ had!" Natsu exclaimed. Lucy smiled at this. No matter what the situation, Natsu's attitude would never change. That's what she loved about him.

While all of this was going on, Gray was still passed out on the couch.

 **Alright! There's the new chapter. Gray, you lazy ass...**

 **Let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments section below because I would _love_ to hear from you guys. Remember, that is not an obligation. **

**I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are! I wish you all good health and blessing! Bye~!**


	14. Jolly Rare

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"Are you _sure_ that you're okay?" Lucy asked her scarlet-haired friend. _Again._

"There is really no need to worry Lucy. It is just a small scrape, nothing to make a fuss about." Erza reassured her for what seemed to be the thousandth time that night.

Upon leaving the storage room, with two new keys this time, Lucy saw that Erza was limping, even if it was just the smallest bit. However, Lucy knew that Erza was never one to show pain, and her true motto was to "deal with it", so it could have been a lot worse than Erza let off. Discretely inspecting the back of her leg, Lucy noticed a large area in her left calf that had discoloration, showing internal bleeding. The sickish blue and slightly yellow color was very unappealing on the scarlet beauty's flawless skin, and it looked like it hurt, so Lucy, instinctively, started to worry immensely.

"But still, it looks a lot worse than what you describe the pain to be as." Lucy said, kneeling to inspect it released a soft, almost inaudible chuckle as she gently grabbed Lucy's arm and made her stand. Lucy looked at her with confused eyes. She softly stroked Lucy's hair a few times.

"Appearances may be deceiving." She simply said as she let go of Lucy's arm to continue down the hallway. Lucy just stood there, frozen, not knowing in the slightest what to say. She would never understand how Erza was able to endure so much pain. If this was when Lucy first met Erza, she would have taken her word for it and left it be, but after knowing her for so long, leaving an injured Erza alone was definitely not an option for her. "Are you coming or not Lucy?" Erza asked as she turned back to look at her blonde companion.

"Uh...yeah, yeah. I'm coming." Lucy said as she tried to shake herself away from her thoughts. Lucy limped her way to the spot beside Erza.

* * *

"Stupid Erza, making me go get back the journal that we left in the hatch. We don't even use the damn thing." Natsu muttered as he stalked through the hallway with Gray on his back and the journal in his hand. "They could have at least taken the damn stripper." He mumbled again.

"Wh-who're ya ca-callin' a stripper?" He heard someone call weakly from behind him. He immediately recognized the voice, and crouched down to let Gray off his back. Gray's breathing was heavy and slow, as if he were still inside his unconscious state. His eyes were just barely open, but through those lidded eyes, he was still glaring at Natsu.

"Ice-prick! You're okay!" Natsu said as he sighed in relief. _I don't have to carry his fat ass anymore!_ Natsu mentally cheered.

"As long as you define 'okay' as 'in massive agony', then yeah, I'm real okay." Gray groaned as he tried to sit up. He then felt a sting in his chest which pushed him back down. Natsu was starting to get a little worried, but he would rather die than show it. Gray looked like he was in a lot of pain.

"Come on, we have to go. I'll carry you on my back again." Natsu reluctantly offered. His response was a scoff.

"Like I want to be carried on your sweaty back." Gray said as he gave a strained chuckle. Natsu was about to retort, but Gray interrupted him. "Just give me a minute, I'll be up and at 'em before you can count to ten." Gray paused. "Hang on, less time than that. It'll take you a lot of time to figure out how to count to ten." Gray said snarkily. Natsu's elicited reply was a punch to Gray's stomach, purposefully missing (or accidentally, you never know with Natsu) the burn mark on his chest. Natsu then took a seat next to him. "Anyway, what happened to me?" Gray asked.

"You were shot by some bolt of lightning that came out of nowhere. You've been knocked out for several hours now." Natsu checked the time on his phone, which he noticed was at 18 percent. "It's 6:48 and I have 18 percent left on my phone." Natsu said.

Gray gave a dry laugh. "Don't worry about it. It's still better than your physics grade." Gray said nonchalantly. Natsu looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"I would punch you again, but Lucy says that injuring the weak is dishonorable." Natsu said.

Gray put a hand to his chest and portrayed an expression on mocked shock. "Natsu used a big word with more than three syllables." Gray said. He was _really_ testing Natsu's patience now. "And speaking of Lucy, why don't you grow some balls and ask her out already?" He asked.

Natsu's head turned to him so fast that he felt like he would get whiplash. "What the hell are you talking about?" Natsu asked casually, but it was obvious that he face was getting closer and closer to the color of his hair. "Who would want to date that weirdo?" He said as he gave a fake laugh.

"Apparently you." Gray pointed out. "Jeez, it's so obvious! I feel like tearing my hair out because you're such a pansy." Gray said.

Natsu's glare softened to give a look of confusion with a little bit of desperation. "It's not...that obvious, is it?" Natsu asked, hoping that even though he and Gray joke around with each other, he wouldn't kid about this matter.

"Yes Natsu. It's blatantly obvious. The only person who doesn't know about this little crush of yours is Lucy." Gray said. All joking aside, this was actually a serious matter. "Come on, you've known her for what, twelve years?" Gray asked rhetorically.

"Thirteen-" Natsu tried to correct.

"And, because I know you so well, I know that you've had this crush on her since the seventh grade. That's five years, you idiot!"

Natsu couldn't say anything. He's been wanting to say something to Lucy, but he always chickened out because he thought that it would ruin the beautiful friendship that was between them. It was a funny thing really. Most people thought that he was the real brave one that would take on challenges head on and not care about the consequences.

But if the consequence is losing Lucy, you can bet everything you own that Natsu was going to use his brain.

"Where are Lucy and Erza anyway?" Gray asked, looking around.

"They sent me to get the journal back from the hatch, and they decided to go see if they can find any other keys." Natsu replied, a little relieved that they were straying from the former topic.

"What hatch?" Gray asked.

"I don't wanna explain it to you." Natsu lazily shrugged.

"Alright then, lazy ass. Do you think that it's a good idea to start moving now? I don't want to get attacked by some ghost in the middle of nowhere." Gray asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Natsu said as he pushed himself off the ground and on to his feet. He only took a few steps before he noticed that Gray wasn't following. "You coming or not?" Natsu asked irritably.

"Yeah, hang on." Gray said as he tried to push himself off the ground, using the wall as support. He was really struggling to complete this task, but there was no way in hell that he would tell Natsu.

But Natsu just rolled his eyes at him. Gray was letting his pride get in front of his health. He couldn't blame him, of course, since he did that as well. That's probably what makes them as close as brothers. Even though they argue and they shout mean words to each other, they understand each other. And besides, you can't have a brother without _some_ argument.

So, Natsu decided to help Gray get off the ground by grabbing onto his bicep and forcing him up straight. Gray felt a pain through his chest, like he was getting shot by lightning again, but then it went away because he was in a comfortable standing position. Natsu let him walk the rest of the way, knowing that Gray would do the same for him.

* * *

Natsu and Gray turned a corner to see Lucy and Erza leaning against a wall, probably waiting for them. When Lucy spotted them, her eyes immediately lit up knowing Gray was awake. She ran up to him and jumped into his arms, which didn't make him stumble back because she was much smaller compared to him, and gave him a huge bear hug.

"Gray, you're okay!" Lucy said. Gray chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her too, and gave her a brotherly kiss on the top of her head.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. You don't need to worry Lu." He said as he pulled away and gave her a pat on the head. Lucy's gaze then shifted to Natsu and then went to hug him too. Natsu accepted his hug warmly, like he always did, and then he tucked Lucy's head under his chin. He looked over at Gray to see him giving him knowing eyes and a smug smile. Natsu glared as the boy left to go talk with Erza, but didn't get far without stripping his shirt off, making Erza punch him in the gut. Natsu then looked down at Lucy again.

"What's up Luce? It's not like I got shot by lightning." He said as he gently started to stroke her hair.

"I know." She said as she nuzzled her face into his neck. He could feel her hot breath on his skin, which made him shiver, luckily Lucy didn't notice. "You were just gone for such a long time, I was scared something might have happened to you." She said softly.

Natsu sighed as he leaned his cheek against the side of her head. "Don't worry Lucy. Nothing bad's gonna happen, okay? We'll get out of here eventually, and then we'll all have a sleepover and eat popcorn and talk all night and..."He was cut off when Lucy gave him a kiss on the cheek. It's like she usually does, but like the last one she gave him, he felt a lovely burn in that same area.

"Thank you, Natsu." Lucy said as she pulled away from him. "Now come on, we think we know where the next key is. Come on." She said as she laced her arm with his. He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze before he let Lucy lead him in the direction that Erza and Gray probably disappeared to.

* * *

"That is the last place I want to go to." Gray stated bluntly as he looked at the door that Erza was holding open for them.

"Listen Gray, it's not like I want to go down there either, but we think it might be a good place to start looking for another set of keys." Lucy said as she tried to persuade him.

"Yeah come on, stripper. Don't be a chicken." Natsu smirked at his long-time rival. Erza creaked the door open a little bit more.

"Gray, we must go... _now_." Erza said as she emphasized the last word, making Gray mumble an apology and come quickly through the door. When he caught the noise of Natsu's snickering at him, he immediately leaned in.

"Call me chicken again, and you won't have to go through the trouble of telling Lucy your little secret. I'll make sure to do that for you." Gray half-heartedly threatened. Natsu glared right back at him, and Lucy, who was standing right next to Natsu and had surprisingly not heard anything, just looked at the two and passed it off as their usual banter.

"Oh, guys I forgot! I wanted to give you these before we got down there." She said as she took out three of her golden keys from her pocket. "If we ever encounter something down there, it's best if you have these with you to protect yourselves." She said as she handed a key to each of them.

Gray looked at it weirdly. "How do I use it?"

"It's super cool! We can use it as a sword and stuff!" Natsu said, swinging his key around. Gray looked at the key once more, then looked at Lucy for clarification. When she nodded, he grinned.

"That's pretty sick." Gray admitted.

"Alright, you three, we have to waste no time. We don't know what other parts of the ship are tearing out and we might just lose the key forever. Let us hurry!" Erza demanded as she rushed the other three through the door and closed it. They walked down the grated steps, which was hard because they weren't using their flashlights since they were almost out of power.

"Watch your step!" Natsu called as one of the steps started to slowly disappear. He quickly maneuvered around it. After him went Gray and Lucy, and Erza had to jump to the next step because the matter had ceased to exist.

"It seems like this part of the ship is starting to disappear as well." Erza said as she put a hand on her chin. "But that doesn't make any sense. Matter cannot be destroyed nor created, so it's impossible for the metal of the ship to just disappear like this."

"Well...maybe it isn't getting destroyed, but turning into something else." Gray offered. Erza shook her head after considering the thought for a moment.

"No, that doesn't make any sense. What could evaporated metal turn into?" Erza asked as they finally got off the flight of stairs. They walked down the wide hallway to the engine room, watching carefully for anything that could pop out at them.

"Okay, so now what are we planning to do?" Natsu asked.

"Well, we believe that there is a ghost in here too, because of that story you told us when we first got here. All we have too do is split up and look for it. Remember, keep your keys close. These ghosts seem to be very violent." Erza commanded. The other three nodded as they started to look for anything that could be related to the keys.

However, they weren't happy to hear a little chuckle.

"In the main, ghosts are said to be forlorn and miserable, if not downright depressing. The jolly ghost is rare." ~David Cavett.

 **So, lots of BrOTPs in here. I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and you'll leave a comment because I want to know how I did. I've just been so busy with life, and I suspect 100 percent that most of you guys have been too.  
**

 **One more thing, there is this guy who goes to my school, and his last name is Alvarez! I was like O_o!  
**

 **And, if you didn't notice, I put a little foreshadowing in this chapter. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I think that it's pretty obvious, since I wrote it. If you can't see it, you'll be able to see a similarity as the story progresses. And no, the last part is not what I'm talking about.**

 **Anyway, I hope that everyone is having an absolutely fantastic day wherever they are! Alright bye!**


	15. Buffalo (Bonus)

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

 **SORRY IF YOU ARE SEEING THIS TWICE. THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM AND I HAD TO RE-UPLOAD.**

It was the summer camp of tenth grade, when they all went out to the beautiful mountains near Oak Town. The wind was breezy on the plains of the prairie below as the sun shone brightly across the land, making the moving grass look like a sea of precious gold.

Standing on this very plain were four teenagers, the ones who had escaped from the group that wanted to go out into the mountains. In all truth, Lucy actually wanted to go hiking with the rest. But no, wherever Natsu goes, she goes. It was vice versa as well, but he was stronger and literally dragged her with him.

Damn him.

"So why did you want to come here?" Lucy asked as she tried to stop her scarf from getting blown away by the wind. Natsu turned back and grinned at her.

"You'll see." He said. He shared "the look" with Gray before he turned back to where he was walking.

Lucy knew that look too well. It was the look that Natsu shared with Gray and Erza when he didn't want to tell her something because he knew she wouldn't like it.

The young gymnast was not going to be fooled this time.

"Well, if you're not going to tell me, I might as well just leave." She said as she turned around and started walking the other way, but Erza stopped her in her tracks.

"Lucy, do you not want to spend time with us?" Erza asked, and even though she still had her stoic mask on, Lucy could see a bit of hurt in her eyes.

"T-th-that's not it Erza! I-I just think that whatever Gray and Natsu are doing might get us in trouble." _Or killed._ She conveniently left out.

"Well, they haven't told me what they are doing either, but they probably aren't doing anything bad." Erza said as she nodded. Lucy looked at her and sweat dropped, wondering what her definition of 'bad' really was, considering all of the...adventures they have been on.

"Alright...if you insist." Lucy conceded, but purposely decided to remain behind Erza the entire time. She wasn't hiding or anything.

Definitely not.

"Hey guys! We're here!" Gray called out to the both of them.

Erza cleared her throat. "Where exactly is this 'here.'" Erza asked, staring blankly at Natsu and Gray.

"Look over there." Natsu pointed. Lucy followed his finger to a group of blackish blobs in the middle of the prairie.

Buffalo.

"Okay, so why are we staring at buffalo?" Lucy asked.

"We're not." Natsu said as he walked up to a sleeping buffalo. Lucy looked at him with wide eyes.

 _Natsu, don't you dare!_ Lucy screamed in her mind. But then, Natsu ended up doing what she feared.

He pulled the buffalo's tail. Hard.

The buffalo bucked it's head at the sudden interaction as it was already standing on it's feet in a defensive position. What most people don't know is that buffalo, even though the look docile and lazy, can run as fast as horses and have the same amount of strength as their close brother, the bison.

In shorter words, Natsu was screwed. But it didn't seem like Natsu cared.

Evidence: He jumped on the buffalo's back.

The buffalo's legs toppled a little bit under the sudden weight, but it started bucking it's head anyway. Natsu grabbed onto the buffalo's horn with one hand and reached one hand up to grip his hat with the other hand as he swung it above his head.

"YEEEEEEHAAAAAWWWW!" He screamed as he rode the bull. The buffalo's whining seemed to arise something in the others as they started to close in as well. However, Gray took this chance to jump on another one, making it copy the actions that Natsu's bull was making.

"I bet I can hold on longer than you, Flame Brain!" Gray shouted to him.

"No way, stripper! You're going down." Natsu said.

Lucy just stood there baffled at her friends actions, while Erza's eyes lit up with determination.

"The key to buffalo riding...is fighting spirit!" She said as she grabbed her down buffalo and started riding it as well.

Lucy covered her eyes. She couldn't watch anymore. It was too painful.

Natsu and Gray seemed to be having the time of their lives and Erza was controlling the bull like a professional. Conveniently for her, her red hair was tied up so the buffalo couldn't see it.

Natsu's buffalo bucked underneath him, trying to force him off. The buffalo's movements stopped when he saw Lucy, or rather, her scarf flowing in the wind.

Her _red_ scarf.

Uh oh...

Lucy looked with wide eyes when the buffalo seemed to be charging at her. Natsu had to grip both of his hands onto it's horns to stabilize himself, but then he saw that he was going straight for Lucy.

"Lucy! Run!" Natsu called, and Lucy didn't need to be told twice as she ran into the forest next to the plain, trying to outrun the large buffalo chasing after her.

Growing up with Natsu, she learned how to climb trees. He would always take her to the tops and she would always whine to him that she was going to fall.

Even though Natsu, the idiot, started this situation, she was more than grateful to him for teaching her how to climb, because that was exactly what she did.

In her attempt to escape the large raging beast, she scaled a large evergreen tree until she reached the very top. Once she got up there, she looked down once more, seeing that the buffalo was looking straight at her, and Natsu was doing the same. When she locked eyes with the large animal, she was unable to remember if you should break your gaze with the beast to make sure that they think that you are not challenging them, or to stare straight at the animal because looking away would cause it to think that you were surrendering. In the end, Lucy decided to look away.

Which caused the buffalo to headbutt the tree.

Well, that didn't work.

Lucy was almost completely shaken out of the tree. She grabbed onto the branches in order to steady herself. While she was doing this, she noticed that Natsu had carefully gotten off of the buffalo and made his way to the opposite side of the tree.

"Lucy, jump down!" Natsu whisper-screamed to her.

"No, I'm going to break my neck." She whispered back before she felt another tremor from the headbutt.

"No Lucy! Trust me! I'll catch you!" He pleadingly said. He held his arms out for her to jump into.

She looked at him, and then at the buffalo, who was about ready to take another charge into the tree. Lucy was scared, and she had no trouble with admitting that, but Natsu always got her out of the shit that he got her into. She trusted him with her life, which was technically what she was doing right now. She positioned herself before she took a leap off of the tree. She didn't scream, nor did she make a sound. She just fell through the air, her hair flowing above her head. But then, she stopped, as she was encased by muscular arms. She smelt a woodsy scent, different than the one she was in now. This scent was homey, one that she had grown up with and she was comfortable with.

Natsu's head bent down to whisper into her ear. "Come on, Luce. Let's go." Lucy just nodded as he slowly led her out of the forest with her still in his arms, and the bull still headbutting the tree, thinking that Lucy was still up there.

* * *

"Guys! Are you okay?" Gray asked as he ran over to them. Natsu gently lowered Lucy to the ground, but still kept his arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, we're okay. We just ditched the buffalo." Natsu said as he gave his stupid grin.

"So did we. We were barely able to escape the hoard, but I believe that Gray's stripping warded many of them off." Erza stated, and Gray's cheeks started to turn a bit pink. Natsu snickered, but Gray was too busy putting on his shirt to respond to him.

"Anyway," Lucy finally spoke up. "What the _hell_ were you two thinking?! We could have all been killed!" Lucy yelled at them.

"Come on, Lu. It was just a little bit of harmless fun." Gray said as he held up his hands.

Lucy scoffed. "Right. Harmless."

"Lighten up, Luce. Don't be such a stick in the mud." He said as he ruffled her hair a little bit. She pulled away from him and scowled, but she was trying to fight the smile that was coming onto her face in favor of scolding the two boys. She wouldn't scold Erza though. That would be just asking for death.

"Fine." She finally sighed out. "But if I see one more buffalo, I'm going to scream." Lucy said.

That was when a small little buffalo calf decided to walk up to Lucy.

And bite off part of her skirt.

Lucy then saw red.

 **Well, you guys wanted it, and you got it! Sorry if I didn't fill your expectations. Don't forget to check out the last chapter because I just updated yesterday so you might have missed it.  
**

 **Anyway, let me know what you thought in the comments section below because I would love to hear from you guys!**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are! See you next time!**


	16. He's Back

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

The small chuckle was enough to snap all of the teen's heads up. It was followed by a series of smaller chuckles, seemingly imitating the first one.

Really, by now the four were used to strange appearances of ghosts, so they weren't that surprised to hear something. If anything, they were very glad. A ghost being there meant that there had to be some golden key hidden in another place.

"No time to dilly dally, we must find the key quickly, but be on your guard. An enemy is around every corner." Erza commanded. The other three nodded as they begun looking.

Lucy looked at the pipe that supposedly blew steam in a man's face. _They have to be somewhere where the naked eye can't see them at first glance._ She then pulled out one of her keys and held it to her forehead and spoke to it. "I know I'm going crazy, but if there is any chance that something might hear me, _please_ tell me, where are the rest of you?" She waited and waited, but nothing ever came. She released the key from her forehead and pouted.

"Luce, what the hell are you doing?" Natsu asked as he walked up to her, an amused look on his face.

Lucy blushed at this, and that made Natsu just want to pinch her cheeks, but he held himself back. "I-I...um...nothing." She finally sighed out. Natsu laughed at her, making her scowl at him.

"You're such a weirdo Lucy." Natsu said, shaking his head.

"Says the person who got us into this situation in the first place." Lucy said, turning away from him.

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Natsu pouted.

Lucy turned back to him. "I know," she said softly. "I forgive you." She gave him a sincere smile before she turned back to what she was looking at before. Natsu smiled at her back, but then turned away to go search some more.

Erza was starting to get frustrated at the lack of process in herself. But, like every good leader should, she held in her feelings, focusing on the task at hand. She then felt a sharp pain in her side, most likely from the cut she had gotten from that ghost's sword. She was surprised her brain could contemplate so quickly that there were really supernatural beings. Everywhere she went she was told that they weren't real. When kids screamed about seeing monsters under their beds and ghosts in their closets, were they actually seeing real ghosts that could actually harm them!?

Erza shook her head, not wanting to think about it anymore. Her logical brain was not fit for these kinds of thoughts. She just continued searching and hoped that whatever the little background chuckle was, it was not going to bother them.

...Who was she kidding?

Gray had been inspecting the not-so-little crack in the ground. It was the crack that Natsu and Lucy fell through that led to the hatch. However, since he was out of commission when his friends went there, he knew absolutely nothing about it. Thinking that it was dangerous, he walked around it to go to the room with the main engine, the metal cold and worn.

Meanwhile, Natsu was trying to climb the beams that led up to the very top of the ceiling. Climbing trees was like taking a breath for him, and climbing metal beams was no different. He wasn't named "wild boy" in fifth grade for nothing.

However, that name could have also come from how much he pissed off the teachers...

Anyway, Natsu swung his leg around one beam and pushed himself up. He could see almost the entire engine room from up there, making it a bit easier to look for anything suspicious. That paired with his high octal vision should make it easy to spot something golden and metal. Natsu checked his phone again. _7:50, huh?_ He then looked outside a window at the very top of the wall, since they were underneath the ship. _The sun isn't setting or rising. It's just pure gray out there._ He thought. He then cringed. _Ew, Gray. Aha! Mystery solved! This is all Gray's fault._ **(Ahem, it was Natsu's fault. *cough* *cough*)** Natsu didn't really believe what he said, but it was always easy for him to blame all of his problems on Gray.

"Natsu!" A strong voice called. Natsu froze but then turned to look at the red-haired woman. "Start looking for those keys!" She shouted at him, and he immediately obeyed her. He squinted, trying to find something that was a shiny gold, since it should stand out with all of the rusty metal around it. That's when Natsu saw it. A golden light.

Lodged deep within the crankshafts.

"Guys, I found it!" Natsu said as he jumped down from the beam and ran to the ledge that looked down into the crankshafts.

"I checked there before, there was nothing there." Gray said as he came up beside Natsu.

"You can't see it from this angle, you have to be up there." Natsu said, pointing to where he was at a minute ago.

"Alright Ashy, how do you suppose we get down there?" Gray asked. Natsu shrugged his shoulders.

Erza came up beside the two boys. "I have some sturdy rope." She said as she pulled a thick, tan colored rope out of her bag.

"What the hell doesn't she have in there?" Natsu asked Gray quietly.

Gray shrugged. "It just means that she came prepared." He replied just as quietly.

Erza took the rope and secured it on the railing before giving it a sturdy tug. "This should hold one of us, and then the rest of us could pull them up.

Lucy came to the ledge and looked over, measuring how far the bottom was from where they were now. "Alright, lower me down, I'm the lightest." Lucy said.

Natsu eyes bulged out, and he immediately went to stop her. "No way, Lucy! You're not doing it."

"Natsu, I'll be fine!"

"You're already injured." He argued.

Gray breathed out an exasperated sigh as he broke the two up. "I think it's real nice that you want to play protector Natsu, but I think we're just wasting time like this. I don't care if you go," he said, pointing at Lucy. "or you go," He pointed at Natsu. "or the ghost of Steve Jobs goes. I just want to get off this damn ship as quick as possible. Alright?"

"Well said, Gray." Erza commended him as she patted him harshly on the back. "He's right, you know. Natsu, if you're so insistent on Lucy not going, why don't you go?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I can live with that."

Lucy sighed. "You're so stubborn."

"So are you." Natsu stated, securing the rope around his abdomen.

"Who do you think I got it from?"

"See! I told you that I was rubbing of on ya!" Natsu said as he ruffled her hair. She didn't get a chance to reply as he went off the railing. Erza held one end of the rope and then it was wrapped around the rusty railing before leading down to the side that was wrapped around Natsu. The rope pulled when it reached it's maximum length.

"Erza, lower me down, I still can't reach it!" Natsu shouted. Erza loosened the knot a little bit to give Natsu more rope.

"Are you there yet, Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"Almost. I just need to, ugh...reach!" He said as he tried to stretch his muscular arm to where he saw the key. He felt as if his ligaments were going to snap and his muscles were going to tear in the position he was in now. Blood rushed to his head as he hung upside down, making him look like he was blushing. Despite all of this, Natsu kept on stretching to reach his target. He was just hoping that no damn ghost would show up and ruin this because he was in enough pain already. "Lower me down just a little more."

Erza was taking a risk when she lowered him down more, because she had barely any rope left to hold on to. Luckily, the small length of rope that she did give him was enough for him to stick his hand deep into the shafts and dig for the keys.

"What crazy old geezer puts keys in a freaking crankshaft!?" Natsu shouted angrily.

"What idiot drags people to an off-limits abandoned ship when he knew that we might get killed or arrested!?" Gray retorted.

"No one asked you, Fullbastard!"

"You're the one that asked the question Flametard!"

"It was rhetorical, idiot!"

"Just get the damn job done, dammit!" Erza yelled down at him.

"Aye sir!" Natsu cried as he waved his hand around the cracks in between the shafts. "Aha! I think I found it!" He said as he pulled one cold metal object out of the crack. "Dang, is there supposed to be two!?"

"Yeah, I think so!" Lucy answered.

"Ugh!" Natsu complained as he dove back between the cracks once more.

Natsu squinted his eyes shut as he begun focusing on searching for the key again, but then he saw that the part that his hand was on was met with nothing. Natsu snapped his eyes open, just to see a hole in the floor and gray fog below it.

The floor was starting to disappear.

Natsu started to search more frantically, hoping that he wouldn't get sucked into the endless void of gray nothingness. The ground started to chip away little by little. And then, when parts of the crankshaft started to disappear as well, he saw it. The other golden key. It tipped over the last piece of flooring there was and was about to fall into the endless abyss before Natsu caught it, securing it into his belt.

"Pull me up! Pull me up! Pull me up! Pull me up!" He screamed frantically. He then felt himself being tugged upward, and the sound of grunting and Erza trying to force the other two to put their backs into it. Before he knew it, he was near the railing again, so he swung himself so he was in a vertical position, grabbed one of the bars, and tugged himself up. He felt two sets of hands grab onto either of his, one pair was cold and rough, and the other one was dainty and soft. With their strength, they managed to pull him up. Once he was over the railing, he untied the rope from his waist and let it fall to the ground, along with himself.

"Are you alright, Natsu?" A feminine voice said from behind him as the same dainty hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned to see Lucy, worry in her eyes.

"Yeah, just a little sore." Lucy poked his bicep and he winced. "Okay, a lot sore. But I'll be fine." Natsu reassured.

Lucy smiled softly. "I know, you always are." She said as she stood up and outstretched a hand towards him. He took it gratefully and used it to stand up. He then looked over the railing once more. The other three doing the same.

"Did it start disappearing when you were searching for it?" Erza questioned. Natsu nodded.

"Yeah. I'm happy I got to the second key when I did, because it was about to fall into the fog." Natsu said as he watched the ground tear piece by piece as it rose up.

"Those particles...they're going somewhere, aren't they?" Lucy asked Erza. Erza just shook her head.

"I don't know, but that is trivial right now. All that matters is that we got the two keys and Natsu didn't fall into that gaping abyss."

 _"That would have been bad."_

The scratchy voice made all of the teens freeze.

 _"Bad! Bad! Bad!"_ Little voices parroted, sounding like little children.

Natsu felt Lucy grip his hand tighter as she looked around. "What is that?"

"Lucy...take your keys out. We're leaving." Erza ordered slowly, and Lucy did just that. Erza cautiously made her way to the doorway leading to the staircase, motioning for the others to follow her. They did so with care, knowing that something could pop out at them at any moment. However, when Erza got to the doorway and looked inside, she immediately put up her hand, signaling the rest to stop.

"What's up Erza?" Gray asked. Erza then turned to face them.

"The staircase. It is gone." She said solemnly.

"What!? How are we going to get out then?" Gray cried.

 _"I know."_ The scratchy voice said.

 _"I know! I know! I know! I know!"_ The smaller voices parroted.

It was then that a dark mist rose from the grated flooring behind them. It disappeared a moment later to reveal a tall, bulky shadow. However, unlike the other ghosts they had encountered, this one didn't charge, but just extended a dark, slim arm towards the crevice in the flooring, leading to the hatch.

"Of course, how could we have forgotten about that!?" Natsu asked. He took a step forward, but was held back by Lucy, her eyes narrowed and suspicion reflected in them.

"Hang on Natsu. How do we know we can trust it? It could be a trap." Lucy said.

"While that may be true, what other option do we have?" Erza asked, eyeing the railing that was now also disappearing. "What do you guys think?" Erza asked.

Gray put a hand to his head. "I think that even though the ghosts are evil, we should still listen to it. I mean, it's not like we're going to lose anything less staying here."

"I hate to say it, but I agree with the stripper. Besides, it leads to the hatch, which is probably the safest part on the ship." Natsu said. He then turned to Lucy. "Luce?"

Lucy looked into all of their eyes and sighed. She really couldn't win an argument against these three. "Fine," Lucy said as she looked over at the dark figure, it's arm still outstretched. "let's go."

One by one, the teens started to pass the dark figure, while it never turned it's head (or what they though was it's head) towards their direction. The last one to pass it was Erza.

With a still suspicious look in her eyes, she turned to the ghost. "Thank you." She said curtly as she passed it. When she was out of sight, the shadow finally did turn it's head.

 _"You're welcome."_

 _"Welcome! Welcome!"_

* * *

Somewhere on the ship, the music box lay still. It's top was open, and an electric blue light was emitting from the inside. The blue light became a gravitational force, drawing in broken materials. The dilapidated parts of the ship that began to evaporate. It kept sucking in more and more energy until the music box finally closed shut abruptly. The room was then quiet and still.

That was until the music box opened once more, and a figure popped out. A shadowy one at that, but this one had more definition in it's face and eyes, and it was more than obvious that it was a man. His eyes traveled down to it's black hands as he flexed his joints. He then went on to moving his hands, then his legs. When he finished moving probably every possible joint, he smirked. It really just looked like a white gash across his dark face, but the shape was still there. He then spoke two words. Two words that the captain of this ship would have been unhappy to hear.

 _ **"I'm back."**_

* * *

 **Alright, there's the new chapter. I really hope you enjoyed. I won't give you a barrage of excuses as to why I have not updated in such a long time, but I have a lot of things going on right now with school and club projects which have taken almost all of my time, which I'm sure a lot of you can relate to.  
**

 **Just to tell you, my schedule for updating since I started on this site is to update in at lease a two-week interval. What that means is that if I update on a Saturday, I have to have my next chapter up by the Saturday two weeks from the Saturday that I updated on, if that makes sense. So, that means that almost no matter what, you will have a chapter at least every two weeks. Failure to complete this will result in me having to update two chapters by the next day, which is hard to do, so...yeah.**

 **Sorry, I felt like you guys needed to know that.**

 **Anyway, I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever they are and that they have a happy Halloween if they haven't had it already!  
**

 **Please review, telling me what you thought!**

 **Bye bye!**


	17. Taken

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Erza jumped into the hatch last and landed on her feet with perfect grace, which was not surprising for her. Even in a desperate situation, she still remains perfect.

"Okay...so now what?" Gray asked, scratching his head.

"The only reason we came down here in the first place was to escape from the engine room since the stairs disappeared. We can leave now." Lucy replied, but Natsu had already flopped himself down on the dusty couch. Not seeming to mind, he just made himself at home.

"Can we take a little break first? I'm tired!" Natsu whined. Lucy rolled her eyes and sat on the arm of the couch as she roughly ruffled his hair.

"We don't have time for that. For all we know, this room could disappear the minute we close our eyes!" Lucy said.

Gray sat in Makarov's desk chair. "Well it's not like we can function much longer without any sleep." He said as he started looking around. "What kind of person has his study under an engine room? Won't it get, like, really hot in here?" He said as he started to strip off his shirt.

"Well it is not cold in here now so there is no reason to take off your shirt, Gray." Erza stated blatantly. Gray looked down at his almost bare chest and groaned.

"I can't help myself, okay!" Gray yelled as he tugged his shirt back on.

"We know, Gray...we know." Lucy said. Natsu already looked like he was passed out, so she started poking his cheek. He didn't budge. "Looks like Natsu is out, you guys can go to sleep too."

"What about you?" Gray asked.

"I'm going to see if Makarov left anything else for us. I'll go to sleep once I'm done." Lucy said.

"Alright, but I don't want you runnin' off anywhere, understand?" Gray asked in an overly protective tone. Lucy gave him a mock salute, making him roll his eyes before rolling out his sleeping bag and crawling into it.

Erza put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Don't stay up too late, okay? We need you to be awake while we are searching for those keys."

"Huh? Why's that?" Lucy asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Without you, we wouldn't even be here right now probably. But don't stress yourself out too much, we're still here to help you." Erza smiled.

"But you're the strong one, Erza...we all depend on you for strength." Lucy told her. Erza shook her head.

"I depend on you three as much as you depend on me. We all work as a team...a family." Erza said.

"Yeah, a family." Lucy smiled, her eyes looking distant. It was true. The four of them were so close-knit that they were technically a family anyway.

"Especially you and that idiot over there." She said, pointing to Natsu who was snoring his head off.

He's probably going to attract the dead...

"I guess so. I mean, we've known each other for so long, and he's my best friend." Lucy said, looking at Natsu.

Erza hummed, looking at Lucy from the corner of her eye. Lucy caught her gaze and flinched back a little.

"Erza, have you been hanging around Mirajane and Lisanna?" Lucy asked slowly.

"Oh no no no, what makes you think that?" Erza asked as she shrugged her shoulders with fake innocence.

"Because that is the exact look they give me when they talk about Natsu to me."

"Ah, I know what you mean. They are really on your back aren't they?" Erza asked. Lucy's eyes widened as she nodded frantically. "Alright then, I am going to get some rest. I expect you to do the same soon." Erza said in an affirmative tone as she combed her fingers through her beautiful scarlet hair.

"Okay, goodnight." Lucy said as she took a seat where Gray was previously, in Makarov's chair. After about ten minutes of browsing through his desk drawers, she looked up to see all of her best friends sleeping peacefully, despite the situation. Well, as peaceful as they usually are, since Natsu was yelling at Gray to fight him and Gray seemed to be yelling back as if they were both conscious and Erza had the look that indicated she was dreaming about cake.

"Lucy..." She heard her name being called. Lucy turned her head to the recognizable voice. She got up from her chair and went to him, sitting in front of where he was lying his head on the arm rest. His toned muscles were tensed and he had an uncomfortable expression on his face. "Mm...Lucy, don't get hurt." He mumbled. Lucy's eyes softened. He may be a hothead but he's still the sweetest person she knows. "P-please...don't leave me..."

Lucy let out a sigh as she smiled. "I'm not going anywhere." She replied softly as she gave his cheek a slight nudge with her own. She felt the familiar warmth of his skin and his soft, spiky locks on her face. She saw his muscles immediately relax with her touch, and the creases on his forehead from the frown he had were now disappearing.

Now that Lucy knew that he was relaxed, she got back to her own work, looking through various papers on Makarov's desk (many of them happen to be expenses for troubles that frequent visitors on the ship have caused). She then came across a pencil drawing much similar to the ones of the keys and the giant flower. It was a picture on a book case. Lucy looked towards the far side of the room, where the bookcase was. In the back of her mind, she was secretly hoping that it would be like one of those situations in the old movies where she pulls out a book and a secret door appears.

Who wouldn't think that was cool?

She kept the crumpled-up piece of paper in her hands as she walked over to the bookcase. She looked down at the picture to see if there was indication that something was there. That was when she saw that one of the books on the pencil drawing was colored in by a red colored pencil. She looked up at the bookcase, trying to count the exact number of books from the bottom to top and left to right.

"Four books up, thirteen books right from the center of the bookcase." Lucy murmured to herself. She successfully located the book in the exact location that it was in the picture, but she also had doubts of if it was the book she was looking for because books could be moved around or this one might be a trap because Makarov didn't want anyone to find out about...whatever he was hiding. However, it wasn't like she had many options.

She snatched the book from the case, immediately knowing that her first preconception of there being a hidden door behind the bookcase was incorrect because nothing happened when the book was pulled.

She open the old leather book to a page that was saved by a beautiful antique bookmark (When she gets out of here, she's going to find one like this online). Right when she opened the book flat, something fell out of the book. It was one of those golden pictures, the ones when black and white coloring became various shades of the bronze-like color. The picture itself was obviously of a painting, that was not hard to figure out, but what was tricky were the details of the painting, since it looked almost blurred and there was no color reference. She could have matched this picture up with at least half a dozen pictures she passed while walking through the ship. She flipped through the book again, and found that two other pages had pictures just like this also.

Lucy knew that this had to be important, otherwise there would have been some kind of explanation as to what the book was or what it was supposed to do. However, if there was one thing for sure, she knew that whatever was in the photo was not inside this room.

So she'll have to go outside.

She knew she promised Gray that she wouldn't go wandering off and she knew that it was dangerous to walk around the ship alone with it becoming more and more dilapidated by the moment. She could just wait for them to wake up, but she doesn't know what would have disappeared in that time period. Finalizing her decision, she took out seven of the eight golden keys that she carried and laid them on Makarov's desk for her companions, just in case she is not back by the time they get up. She took one of the keys with her, in case she had to defend herself. She hoped that wherever she was going would have golden keys as well.

* * *

Lucy walked down the long hallway that led to the main deck, checking every single painting that she crossed to see if any of the features matched with the ones. She turned another corner and started checking again. She held the journal and the book tightly in her hand as she walked down the hall, almost afraid to drop it.

 _The ship will disappear by the time I find this!_ Lucy screamed in her head as she stepped over another crevice in the floor. She took a quick peak at the gray fog below, and immediately got the chills. That definitely didn't look like a place she would want to be sucked into.

She unconsciously gripped the lone key, not even noticing which one she brought. She studied it for a moment, but the insignia on the top of the key made it clear who it was: Aquarius.

"Aquarius, huh?" She asked herself. She didn't really know why she brought this key, but she does know that it wasn't just some random luck of the draw. She felt as if the key... _wanted_ to go with her. She couldn't tell if she was just being delusional, but when you've been in her position, you'll believe that anything is possible.

Lucy passed another row of pictures until she finally found the one she had been looking for. At least, it looked like the one she had been looking for. It was a beautiful painting of a crescent bay of an island with a forest and a volcano with smoke coming out of it. The details were so precise that it looked more like a photo than an actual painting.

"If this isn't it, I'm going to jump into that void." She muttered to herself as she grabbed the hinges of the frame and pulled it off the wall. Behind the wall, where she hoped to find a key, but was disappointed and a little frustrated to find a safe etched into the wall. "Are you kidding me!?" Lucy huffed in frustration. How was she supposed to know the damn code?! The safe had a lock combination of three numbers on it, but it would probably take her forever to figure it out.

She racked her brain for anything that consisted of numbers. She could try the page numbers on the book she found with the three pictures in them...but she felt like that might not work. She just hopes that it's not something stupid like 'how many windows are on this ship?'. She would be really pissed if that's what it was.

She opened the journal and searched through it, trying to find some sort of date indication that might help. She then saw the date of Makarov's entry that titled 'When it first began'. The date being March 24th.

Lucy plugged the number into the lock and yanked on it, but it wouldn't come undone. She tried a bunch of other codes from what she found in the journal and dates that she thought were significant, but to no prevail.

Lucy turned another page and came across a page that had no title, but had the words 'grandson' and 'missing'. This was the entry that Makarov probably wrote when Laxus disappeared. The date on this was September 12th. She turned the first digit to 9, the second to 1, and the third to 2. The lock then opened. Lucy mentally cheered for herself.

She then sobered up when she remembered what numbers she actually put in. She looked back at the journal to see Makarov's neat handwriting, but also a few smudges in the ink, probably from tears. _I guess the captain really loved his grandson, huh?_ Lucy thought to herself. She hoped that she could quickly get these keys so that they can free the souls and get off this damn boat.

She undid the lock around the safe and opened it, which revealed two golden keys. Just what she was looking for. It was Capricorn and Gemini. Their symbols showed proudly on the key's head, signifying their identity. She quickly took them and closed the safe door before making her way back to the others, not wanting to stay any longer for fear that something might come out. It was then that she felt an excessive weight on her back, as if someone or some _thing_ was leaning on her. She turned around quickly only to find that there was nothing there. No dark figure, no creepy voices, nothing. Lucy thought that at this point, she couldn't tell what was real or not anymore. The dark hallway was starting to look incredibly longer than it was a moment ago, but Lucy started down it anyway, not wanting to take the chance of attracting anything towards her.

But why did she still feel that pressure on her back?

* * *

Lucy made it back to the hatch to find her three traveling companions still resting. She wasn't really surprised by this, since she wasn't gone for a very long time and they were tired. Which reminded her, she should get some shut-eye before they start their quest for the last two keys. It wasn't fair that they got to rest and she di-

A chime was heard...

It was the music box.

Lucy's eyes widened with fear, not wanting to believe that the one place that they thought was safe would be their next encounter for the deadly sound. She was about to yell out to the rest to wake up in case she was taken, but what felt like four sets of hands grabbed her and pinned her to the ground. Tears clouded her eyes as she struggled to break herself free from the hold of her captors. She then stopped when she saw a figure looming over her, their red eyes bearing into hers as they gave her a smirk. If it was even possible, her eyes widened more.

She knew his face! It was-

But alas, the music box was starting to take effect on her. Her eyes dimmed and she went limp, resembling more of a corpse. Before she could completely lose her consciousness, she dropped the three keys that were in her possession on the ground so her friends could find them. Her vision then went black.

Those four sets of arms then dragged her down the hall, being led by the larger shadow.

 **Okay, another chapter done! I am so sorry for making you guys wait, but I had some stuff I had to take care of. However, the guilt was getting the better of me and I thought that I might as well type _something_ up. Anyway, thank you all for reading! Let me know what you think. Remember, any suggestions/criticism is welcome.**

 **Everyone better be having a _fantastic_ day wherever you are. I will be watching you! O^O**


	18. Torture

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Natsu let out a burp before he got up, which was odd considering he didn't eat anything.

It wasn't a surprise when the first thing he noticed when he got up was that a certain blonde-haired girl wasn't there. Once the thought registered in his brain, he immediately shot out of his sleeping position on the couch, frantically looking around the room for any remnant that Lucy was there, or had been there.

"Gray, Erza, get up!" Natsu yelled, which got an immediate response from Erza and a sluggish reply from Gray.

"What is it Natsu? Are we under attack?" Erza asked, completely on guard.

"No, but Lucy isn't here!"

"What if she just went to the bathroom? It's a part of human nature to excrete ones waste." Erza said thoughtfully.

Gray scoffed before sitting upright. "We've barely eaten anything. What is there to 'excrete'?" Gray asked, putting little air quotes around the last word. Erza shot him a warning glare, and he immediately lowered his hands.

"What if she's in trouble!? We have to go!" Natsu said as he sprung up and started running towards the door.

"Wait, Natsu." He heard Erza call. She was crouched down in front of Makarov's desk, examining the two unfamiliar keys that were on the ground. "I think Lucy went and got the next two keys for us." She said, picking them up.

"What!? She went without us knowing!?" Gray exclaimed as he came up behind Erza. "Do you think that she went to get the next two while we were sleeping?" He asked.

"No." Natsu's rough voice said as he crouched down. "She was taken." He said in a calm, but deadly voice.

"How can you tell?" Erza asked.

Natsu touched the carpeted floor beneath him, feeling it's texture. "There are signs of a struggle. Whatever happened, someone dragged Luce away." He growled before getting up and sprinting to the door before crouching down once more to climb through the small passage at an incredible speed.

"Natsu, wait-" Erza tried to say, but he was already gone.

"Let's go. That Flame Brain is probably going to get himself killed somehow. He doesn't even know where Lucy is." Gray said as he took off after Natsu.

 _If Natsu is right, and Lucy was taken, then the music box must have gotten to her._ Erza thought solemnly. _Even if there is the slightest chance that Lucy is still alive, we have to find her._ She thought as grabbed the remaining keys off the desk and got up as well.

* * *

"Get out here you ghost cowards! Give Lucy back!" He yelled through the vacant ship at the top of his lungs.

"Natsu! What're you thinking!? You can't just run off like that. You could end up just like Lucy-" Gray couldn't finish his sentence before Natsu grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him to meet his fiery gaze.

"Don't talk about Lucy as if she's already gone!" He growled.

"Boys!" Erza yelled as she came around the corner. "This is no time to be fighting! Lucy left us all of the keys except for tow, meaning that they haven't been found yet. We _need_ to find those keys, quickly."

"But what about Lucy? The longer we wait, the less of a chance there is that we can save her!" Natsu said, his eyes becoming frantic. Erza put her thumb and pointer finger to her chin, contemplating their options.

"Alright, we'll have two people search for the two remaining keys and the third person will go find Lucy. I think we already know who that person is." She said, looking at Natsu.

Natsu leaned over to Gray. "It's me, right?" He asked. Gray face palmed.

"Natsu, find Lucy and meet us back at the painting in the hallway right of the reception counter. After Gray and I find the other keys, we'll meet you there." Erza ordered.

"Why there?" Natsu asked.

"That's where that giant flower thing is. It's where we'll be able to get that crank so we can put it in the damn music box, and we're home free!" Gray explained.

Natsu nodded. "Alright, I'll see you guys there." He said as he started to take off.

"Wait Natsu," Erza called him back. She pulled out one of the keys and handed it to him. "you'll probably be needing this." She said. Natsu shook his head and gave the key back to her.

"I think that if I hang on to that, it will scare the rest of the ghosts away, even though they could lead me to Luce. Find the other keys and get that crank. If I have it with me, you'll need me to come back and I can't promise that."

"Don't say that idiot!" Gray yelled. Erza grabbed his arm.

"Let us go, Gray." Gray nodded as he went with Erza while Natsu ran in the opposite direction.

* * *

Lucy woke up with a start, but her head immediately started to pound a second later which forced her back down. She heard the shuffle of chains, and as she looked down she realized that she was chained up. Both her hands and her feet were bound by rusted chains. She found herself bound to a table, one that was metal and the contained a chill that she could feel through her shirt. Dark walls beset her body as she tried to look for an exit, but to no prevail.

"Where the hell am I?" She whispered to herself as she tried to tug at the chains. You would think that the chains would have been so old that they would have just broken, but you would be wrong. The chains were as hard to break as newly formed steel.

A loud thump on the ground in front of her made her head shoot right up, only to come face-to-face with the demonic red eyes who she had recognized before she blacked out.

 _"It is time to exact my revenge..."_ The ghost whispered creepily.

"L-like hell you creep! What are you planning to do?" She asked, her voice wavering. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't scared, she would never had expected him to be here.

 _"Oh, so you know of me? As flattering as that is, your time is up."_ He said.

"What does that mean?" She asked.

 _"It is time to take you as a vessel."_ The ghost said, creeping towards her. **(Anyone else think of Naruto?)**

"V-vessel? What are you-!" The dark figure grabbed her face in his large hands, and she felt the cold, rotten flesh on her skin.

Nothing happened at first, but then she was barraged with excruciating pain. Dark molecules were being sucked into her stomach as she screamed out in agony. With those dark forces came the dark mist that was now disintegrating the smirking dark figure and being sucked into Lucy.

Lucy's whole body hurt and it felt as if someone was tearing her apart, limb from limb, but somehow she was still alive. Her vision started to darken, but she fought herself to stay awake, not knowing what would happen if she fell asleep.

 _"You cannot resist me little girl!"_ The voice said as Lucy screamed out in bloody murder. She couldn't fight it anymore, she had no more strength. She very reluctantly gave in, but not before uttering a few words.

"Damn you...Ivan Dreyer." She choked out.

* * *

Natsu broke out into a run. He knew that he heard her scream, it wasn't something that a person could just mistake. He turned another corner, not because his brain wanted him to, but because his feet wanted to. He scrambled in all directions, trying to locate the source of the sound. He tripped a few times, almost resulting in him falling into the voids in the ship's floor, which were, in fact, getting much bigger.

A loud screech of metal distracted him as he had to cover his sensitive ears from the terrible noise. Once the loud screeching had passed, he proceeded to start running again, but not before stopping to read the message that seemed to have been left on the wall.

 _The opposite of darkness is love._

Natsu registered the words in his brain, but didn't have time to contemplate them as he rushed towards where he thought Lucy's scream came from.

He turned one last corner and jumped over a large, gaping crevice, only to stumble and fall onto the part of the floor that did not have the void on it. He heard footsteps suddenly walking towards him, and he looked up to see Lucy walking slowly towards his direction, looking at her hands which clenched and unclenched themselves. At first glance, Natsu could already tell that something was wrong with Lucy. The smile she was sporting was not genuine and kind like all of her other ones, it was filled with malice and smugness, and expression that he had never seen on her.

"L-Luce!" He yelled out to her. Her head popped up to look at him laying on the ground, but it didn't look like she even recognized what he called her, only that she heard something and looked towards the noise. There was one more thing off about her as well.

Her eyes were a glowing red.

 **I think this is one of the shortest chapters I have written for this story, but please forgive me because this chapter is supposed to build up the events for the conclusion, which is most likely going to happen next chapter and if not, the chapter after that. Wow, this story is almost over. I've got to tell you, it took me a lot less time to write this than my other one, which might be because it's much shorter, but whatever! You guys can expect an _extra_ long chapter from me the next time I update.**

 **Is anyone else on the edge of their seat for the next manga chapter of Fairy Tail?**

 **Anyway, leave any comments or suggestions below because I would absolutely _love_ to hear from you guys. Of course, as always, I would never force you to so there is no need to do it if you don't want to.**

 **I hope that everyone is having an absolutely fantastic day wherever they are and that everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. (If you celebrate it that is.)**


	19. Broken Curse

**All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima. (I have updated this chapter, there is an important note at the bottom if you would like to read it)  
**

Erza and Gray searched high and low for the key. They checked every place that could possibly have it, but had no such luck in locating it.

"What if it already got sucked into some void?" Gray asked pessimistically. _Then we'll never get out of here._ He thought.

The scarlet-haired beauty sighed, turning around to look at him. "You can't think like that, Gray. There must have been some spot that we overlooked in our rush to find them." She said, scratching her chin.

"Well where else could it be!? We have to get that key, and fast!" Gray yelled. It was then that Erza took in his full appearance. His skin was much paler, which wasn't that surprising considering where they were, his hair was disheveled in some many ways and he had dark bags under his eyes. Red blood vessels crept along the whites of his eyes towards his pupils and he was breathing heavily, like he was trying to gain his breath.

"What makes you say that?" Erza asked.

Gray crossed his arms in a serious manner. "I just have a feeling that wherever Natsu and Lucy are, there's bound to be trouble I don't want either of those two getting hurt." He admitted. It wasn't common that Gray would express his worry for someone. He has done it for Lucy a couple of times, but almost never Natsu. But Erza could clearly see that he was so scared at the moment. Who wouldn't be? They were stuck on a haunted ship for four days with limited water and food, which had all finished, and they were trying to solve a mystery about some keys to keep the ghosts from killing them. It could change to facade that someone puts up around other people.

And now, Erza could see that Gray was truly scared. He just didn't want to lose another important person in his life.

Erza glared at him, trying to motivate him to keep going. "Well if we don't hurry up, then they are _going_ to get hurt. We have to keep searching. If there is even a sliver of a chance that the keys are still out there, there is no reason to give up."

Gray breathed a deep sigh. "Yeah, let's go." He said as they exited the room they were in and went into another one. This one had large glass windows on almost all of the walls, looking out into the dense gray fog that surrounded them. Near almost all of the windows was a telescope. The floor, what was left of it, was carpeted and had random books lying around in different places.

"It's an observatory." Erza stated as she looked around. She and Gray hopped from places to place, avoiding the deteriorating floor. Gray had to quickly move his foot away to keep it from falling into another crack.

"Damn, this whole ship disappearing thing is really starting to piss me off." Gray mumbled. "I'm surprised there's any floor left from how long it has been vanishing for."

"Well, it only did start vanishing yesterday." Erza stated as she looked out one of the windows. "If the key was here, then where would it be?" Erza asked mainly herself but Gray answered as well.

"Well, obviously it would be in a place that we would least expect it to be." Gray said as he looked at the painting on the wall. It was one of the olden-time portrait paintings, probably of some European guy. His eyes were cold and lifeless, unlike some of the beautiful artwork that he had seen before, but the eyes gave him a sort of feeling that there was something behind them. Not literally, but as in the meaning behind why they were painted like that.

Now that Gray looked around, he noticed that there were plenty European paintings just like that one that all had their eyes painted a certain way, a way that makes them look like they are staring at something.

"Hey Erza? Do you notice something off about these paintings?" Gray asked. Erza looked at the painting he was standing next to and then the other ones that were filling up the places on the walls were the windows were not. She raised a questioning eyebrow at him as a tacit to explain. "Look at the eyes, they all look like they are staring at something."

Erza took one last look, and noticed that all of the eyes were pointing in the same direction, like they were a map of some sorts. However, before Erza could follow where the eyes led, a piercing scream broke through the room, making Erza and Gray cover their ears to try to wane the sound of the horrible wail. They felt as if the gravity in the room increased and was trying to pull them deeper into the Earth.

By the time the sound stopped, Erza and Gray were gasping for breath as if they had just run a marathon. They hesitantly removed their hands from their heads and gently sat up, looking around the room to see if there was anything that they were going to confront. There was no ghost nor supernatural being around them. However, something was obviously there. And it was being blatantly obvious that it didn't want them around.

All of the paintings' faces were scratched up. The eyes of the painting were missing along with the head of each person.

Gray slowly walked over to one of the paintings and held it up, clearly seeing through the rip to the other side. "Now what?" He asked solemnly as he put down the painting and turned to Erza. Erza looked at the wall where the painting used to be.

"The eyes were pointing straight from here, correct?" She asked Gray, referring to the painting he was previously looking at. Gray nodded. She then walked over to where the painting she was looking at was. "And this painting was looking through it's peripheral vision..." she said to herself.

"Erza, what the hell are you talking about?" Gray asked, confused, but Erza just kept mumbling to herself.

"If we position the exact places where all of the eyes were pointing, then they would point to..." she started, turning her head to look at the window at the far end of the room. "...there." She finally said in a strong voice as she made her way over to the window, Gray following her every footstep. It wasn't the window itself that would give her any clues, but it was the telescope that was pressed against it that sparked her interest. "What we are looking for _must_ be here." She said as she examined the telescope. Gray dipped down and looked into the eyepiece, but saw nothing special, just gray mist that had seemed to be a little more colorful.

"How is this thing supposed to lead us to the remaining keys?" Gray asked. Erza shrugged, but continued to examine the telescope. In all honesty, it looked like a newly-made piece of artwork. There were intricate designs of gold and silver among the rims and the body was a sleek, shiny black. There was no way that it had been there for over forty years.

A cold breeze swept through the room and a chilling feeling settled in the marrow of their bones. There was something behind them, and they both knew it. The question was, what was the best approach to it. Erza gripped one of Lucy's keys in her hand, daring herself to spin around. Her eyes then landed on the black figure. Gray examined it for a moment, feeling a surge of familiarity flow through him. He quickly held Erza back before she launched.

"What are you doing!?" Erza yelled at him, and Gray couldn't help but shiver, but he kept his hold strong on her. He then looked towards the figure, who had yet to make a move.

"It's him." He whispered. Erza's eyebrows scrunched in confusion, not contemplating who Gray was referring to.

"Who?"

"The one that helped us out in the engine room." He said. Upon closer inspection, she could see how Gray could have come to that conclusion. The figure had the same shape as it did before, and the most distinctive characteristic would be the three smaller figures following him around. "Maybe he's here to help us again?"

"I wouldn't be so sure. They are our enemy, after all." Erza said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes dangerously.

"Well, are you going to ask what he want or am I going to have to?" Gray asked, a little apprehensively. Erza just rolled her eyes and took a step forward. The figure did not move.

"What do you want?" Erza asked, straight to the point. The ghost pointed one long, shadowy finger towards the telescope, and then made a turning motion with his hands. Erza looked back at the telescope and motioned to Gray, telling him to copy the action of the ghost. While Gray tried to figure that out, Erza turned back to the ghost. "Why are you helping us? What are you hoping to gin out of this" Erza asked.

The figure shrugged and turned away from her, his three little figures following him. But then, he seemed to look over his shoulder, or what Erza thought was his shoulder.

 _"Freedom."_ He whispered in that low demonic voice.

 _"Freedom. Freedom. Freedom."_ The little voices copied. He then looked straight again.

 _"I won't help you again."_

And then he vanished.

Erza gazed at the spot the ghost was once in. It was odd that he was the only ghost that had helped them, and it still puzzled her why.

"I think I got it!" Gray yelled from behind her. Erza looked over at him just as he was twisting the eyepiece. The lens came off and he reached two fingers inside, since his whole arm would never fit.

"Can you reach them?" Erza asked.

"I think so." Gray said in a strained voice as he tried to stretch his fingers deeper into the telescope. He finally caught something cold and metal, and immediately knew what it was. He quickly clasped them between his index and middle fingers and pulled them out, revealing the remaining two keys, Libra and Pisces. Not like he would really know that though. "We've got them...we've got them..." Gray trailed off, still finding it hard to believe that they had finally reached their goal after so long. (4 days, but it's a long time if you are them.)

"We don't have any time to waste! We have to get to that flower before anything happens to Natsu or Lucy!" Erza said. Gray nodded before they set out down the hallway, back to where the Magnolia was.

One thing was off, however. There were no ghosts there to stop them this time.

* * *

Natsu looked into the eyes of his best friend, now morphed into cold, stony red orbs. Her expression was stoic, however the slight smirk of her lips was evident.

Whoever this was, it was definitely _not_ Lucy.

"L-Lucy?" Natsu whispered in a strained voice. His best friend's facsimile just narrowed her eyes at him, obviously not recognizing who he was. She then raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, is that the girl's name?" Her first words were spoken in a demonic voice. It sounded like Batman's voice but a little less like it had gone through puberty and more like a regular man's. Natsu's eyes widened as he attempted to get off the ground, but as he got up, a force pushed him back down. He looked up to see two of the ghosts holding his arms down, rendering him unable to move. It was then that he regretted not taking one of the keys with him. "Hold them down, my minions." Lucy commanded.

"Who the hell are you!? What have you done to Lucy!?" Natsu yelled as he struggled against the hold that was put on him.

"My name is Ivan, and I'm sorry to say this, but your little girlfriend is _dead_." She said in a venomous voice. She then looked at the two black figures. "Throw him into the void." They did as they were told, dragging a limp Natsu towards one of the crevices. That one word repeated over and over in Natsu's mind.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

 _Dead._

F*ck no!

"You bastard! Lucy isn't dead!" Natsu yelled hysterically as he began to struggle once again.

Ivan laughed. "This girl is just a vessel for me. Just an empty shell. Darkness will _always_ overpower people." He said as he started to get farther and farther away due to the ghosts dragging him.

It was then that something clicked in his mind. Those words that were written on the walls.

 _The opposite of darkness is love._

That was it.

Natsu was finally able to struggle out of the grip of both of the ghosts and reach Lucy, where he held her face in between is hands. He felt the ghosts come back and try to pull him off, but he held on strong, forcing himself and Lucy onto the ground.

"What are you doing, you fool!?" Lucy snarled with narrowed red eyes. However, Natsu did not flinch, but just looked for any sign that his Lucy was still inside.

"Come on, Luce. I know you're still in there. Come back to me." He said in a gentle voice. The ghosts stopped tugging at him, knowing that if they continued, Ivan would be dragged down with him as well.

Lucy smirked. "You really don't know how to take a clue, do you?" She said as she yanked her face away from him, only to have his hands catch her upper arms. He was now kneeling in front of her, his eyes determined and strong.

"Lucy wouldn't be beaten like this. She's so strong and kind and loving, so her heart would never be out ruled by darkness!" Natsu yelled.

"Well it was! She's dead now! There's nothing more you can do about it!" She retorted in that demonic voice. He could feel a dark energy surround them now and the air was getting thicker by the minute.

 _No, Lucy is still in there somewhere. I can just feel it._ Natsu thought.

"Lucy isn't gone...I refuse to believe so." He then did something that he never thought he would do in his life.

He kissed her.

He put all of the love he felt for her into the kiss, and for a second, she went limp, and stopped resisting, and that was all the proof he needed. She was still in there somewhere, but she was being oppressed. She then started to struggle against him once again. Finally pushing away, she sent out some sort of dark pulse that sent him straight through the two ghosts. They then solidified again and started to drag him away.

"You must be very stupid if you thought that would work." Lucy said, walking after the dragged boy. He glared daggers at her as he felt hot tears sting his eyes. "This girl here is mine, and there ain't nothing you can do about it." She said. When the two ghosts finally reached the gaping gray abyss, she said, "Throw this pest away."

And they did so, but not before Natsu caught Lucy's ankle, forcing her down with him. Somehow, he managed to grab the edge of the floor so that he wouldn't fall in while hanging on to Lucy's left wrist. He managed to force himself up, but his hand was still holding Lucy.

"You fool, pull me up!" She ordered.

"No! Not until you return Lucy to me!" Natsu yelled. His voice then softened. "Lucy please come back to me. I love you more than anyone in the world, and I want to just bash my head into a wall for not telling you sooner. Please, just please come back to me." Those warm tears were now streaming down his face, with a few droplets landing on her face.

Her eyes then started to widen, and she clutched her head with her right hand and let out an agonizing scream, making Natsu grip her with his unoccupied hand as well. She then looked up once again, and he saw one malicious eye glaring at him, but also one beautiful chocolate brown eye that had a streak of salt water flowing out of it. It looked like her face was split in half, with one side angel and the other a devil. If there wasn't such gravity on this situation, he would have told her how weird she looked.

"Natsu." Her voice was sweet again, and he knew that his Lucy was fighting through the darkness that had overpowered her. "You have to let me go." She finally said, and Natsu's eyes widened.

"N-no way! There's no way I'm just going to drop you." He then felt her grip on him tighten.

"You stupid boy! Just pull me up!" The voice of Ivan broke through, and Natsu responded by gripping her hand tighter. She then shook her head once again. "Please Natsu, I-I'm too dangerous. Get that crank and get out of here!"

"You're really stupid aren't you?" Natsu asked, and Lucy could just muster one mock glare. "How could I ever let go of you? I love you too much." He gave an embarrassing voice crack at the end, but he didn't care. Lucy, however, still didn't look convinced. Natsu decided that it was a good time to pull Lucy up, for a few reasons.

1\. His arm was getting tired. He may have really strong muscles but they were starting to cramp.

2\. He just wanted to hold Lucy once again.

3\. If he didn't pull her up, who knows if the ghosts would push him and then they both would fall into the gaping abyss.

Lucy started to resist his hold. She then stopped, only to focus her energy to make her body an incredibly hot temperature. It was starting to burn Natsu's skin, but he didn't care, he kept his grip firm. He then looked into her eyes, which were now both red.

"Come on, Lucy. I know you can fight him." He said as he cupped her face, immediately moving away when she almost bit him.

"She won't be able to for long, and there isn't anything you can do about it." The low demonic voice said as she pushed out of Natsu's hold and grabbed his neck, holding him to the ground. Natsu gasped for breath, and Lucy had a mad serial killer look in her eyes. She was so focused on killing Natsu, that she didn't notice that there weren't any ghosts around to assist her.

"Isn't there?" Another voice intervened. Lucy's head snapped towards the sound of the woman's voice, making her grip loosen a little bit on Natsu. Natsu looked towards his friend, holding in one hand a silver metal piece. Next to her was the stripper himself holding the music box in one hand and staying close to Erza, making sure that she was there in case the music box took control over him.

Lucy's eyes grew wide with terror as she finally let go of Natsu, making him cough and wheeze to get air in his lungs. She then made her way over to his two companions. "Put that down you brats!" She yelled in her demonic voice. Erza quickly took the box from Gray and took out the crank that was already in there.

"Why? Are you afraid we'll do _this_." She said as she inserted the crank and turned it with all of her might, just as Lucy tackled her to the ground. A blinding light shot out of the box, and all around them you could hear agonizing screams, but none of them compared to Lucy's. She sounded as if she was being burned alive. She clutched her head in sheer agony, but because the room was so bright, none of her friends could rush to her aid, as much as they, mainly Natsu, wanted to. The light then started to fade, signaling that it was okay to open their eyes now. Natsu opened is first, just to see Lucy drop to the ground, limp, and not moving.

Natsu pushed his body up and rushed over to her. "Lucy?" He called once, shaking her softly. He knew she was alive, since she was breathing, but it would calm his heart down a lot if she was awake right now. "Luce, come on, get up." He said slapping her face lightly. He then poked her. Over and over again, and he saw her face scrunch up.

"If that's Natsu...I'm going to kill you." She said drowsily, her eyes still closed. Her voice was back to normal, and as she opened her eyelids, he saw two beautiful chocolate orbs staring back at him. He shook his head and chuckled as he felt tears fall down his face.

"Well? You gonna kill me now?" Natsu asked jokingly. Lucy rolled her eyes as she sat up.

"Not yet. Wait until we get home." Lucy said as Erza knelt down next to her and helped her up, giving her a hug.

"Yeah, home...we're finally going home..." Natsu trailed off as Gray yanked him off the ground, eliciting a middle finger from the pink-haired boy. Gray rolled his eyes as he went to hug Lucy as well.

"I'd hate to break up this touchy moment," Gray started as he crossed his arms. "but I just want to get out of here before something else happens and we're stuck here again."

"Agreed." The three of them said in unison, starting towards the main entrance.

"Wait guys, look!" Lucy said as she pointed to the wall. The rest of the teens stared at it in shock.

"The ship...it's repairing itself." Gray said, staring at the wall that looked, well... more like a wall than just random bits of plasterboard. Natsu then ran over to a window that was at the end of the hall.

"There's no fog outside anymore!" He screamed in glee, doing a little leprechaun jump when making his way back to them.

"That's a relief, now we can go." Erza said as she nodded her head. The four teens smiled as they thought about going home. Erza and Gray walked ahead of both Natsu and Lucy, and the atmosphere was a little awkward around them. Natsu didn't know to how bring up how he felt about her and Lucy was just trying to shake the fact that she just remembered that he kissed her. Lucy blushed beet red at the realization. However, they both decided that they were going to have to break the silence at some point.

"Hey-" They both started at the same time. "No please, you start-" They said in unison once again. "No, I insist!" This was getting absolutely nowhere, so Natsu decided to wrap his arm around her shoulder and cover her mouth while also pulling her towards him. "Alright then, if you insist!" He said with a boyish grin. Lucy shot him a half-hearted glare, removing his hand from her mouth. Natsu coughed nervously, forgetting what he wanted to say. There was just no good way to tell her his feelings. He only sighed. "I'm happy that you're back with me, Lucy. I almost thought I had lost you there."

Lucy smiled as she averted her eyes. "The only reason that I'm still here right now is because you refused to let go of me." She stated.

"Yeah, what was that crap you were saying, anyway?" Natsu asked, raising an eyebrow. Lucy blushed and didn't answer. "It doesn't matter how many times you'll tell me to let go, I never will. I promise."

Lucy nudged him. "Don't make promises you don't know that you can keep."

"Nah, I know that I'll keep this one." He said confidently.

Lucy let a small smile cross her face, and leaned over to place a kiss on his cheek. However, it just so happened that Natsu turned his head at that moment.

So she ended up kissing him on the lips.

Oops.

Both teens eyes were widened with shock, but neither of them pulled away immediately. Natsu pointed out to himself that despite being on a floating hell for four days without a moisturizer, her lips were just so soft. He felt his eyes close as he cupped her cheek and deepened the kiss. Lucy's eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of their sockets. However, she also started to respond shyly, not knowing what to do in that kind of situation. But just as she started to, Natsu broke it off. It wasn't like he didn't like it, quite the opposite actually, but it didn't look like the right setting for that sort of thing.

"Come on Lucy, Erza and Gray are probably already off the ship by now." He said as he picked her up and placed her on his back before running after his two other friends. Lucy just hung her arms loosely around his neck, still and a daze and blushing a tomato red.

* * *

They had all just slid off the rope and landed on the concrete before they literally fell too the ground, breathing in the scent of fresh air. It was evening as far as they could tell, considering the sun was setting and the sky was illuminated beautiful reds and yellows, and it painted the clouds a peaceful pink color.

"Come on guys, we have to get up." Gray said as he forced his tired muscles to stand.

"Very well, let us go." She said, stealing one last glance at the ship before they made their way to the exit. That was before a white light surrounded the area in front of them. When the light vanished, there stood a little man, one not above the height of two feet: Captain Makarov Dreyar. He was transparent and had a glowing white aura around him, but he still had on a friendly smile, one that made him look alive.

"Captain Makarov?" Lucy asked in a whispered tone. The small ghost nodded and his grin grew brighter.

"Yes, my dear. Thank you so much for freeing us. We are forever in your debt." He said, bowing. Erza knelt to his height to look him straight in the eye.

"We're just glad that you can leave now." She said.

Another white light flashed in front of them, and then came a large figure with blonde hair and a large lightning blot-like scar, at least five feet taller than the first spirit. In his arms was a little girl with dark green hair and wide eyes, a face that all four teens were familiar with. The man said nothing as he gave a quick bow, letting the little girl run out of his arms. She immediately made her way to Lucy, motioning for her to come down to her height.

"Thank you, Ms. Lucy and friends! I can go to the place where there are lots of those people with wings now!" The little girl chirped happily. Lucy had to brush a stray tear out of her eye as she looked at the little girl who was now freed from the horrible place. Lucy assumed that the place she was referring to was heaven, and the 'people with wings' are angels.

"You sure can, honey." Lucy replied. Lucy then hesitantly brought up her hand to touch Asuka's head, but her hand just went right through it, so Lucy retracted her hand immediately.

Asuka just laughed. "You're really funny, miss!" She said.

"Are you guys free to go now?" Natsu asked Makarov. The old man nodded at the boy.

"Yes, my son, we are finally free from that prison that my son had encased us in. We are so sorry for all trouble we have caused. The whole reason any of us are here is because of the four of you. I give you my sincerest thanks." Makarov said as he bowed once again. Natsu smiled, immediately forgiving the formerly-possessed spirits.

"We all give our thanks." A woman with green hair said as she and three other ghosts made their way to the group.

"Mommy!" Asuka yelled as she left Lucy's side to join her mother. Bisca picked her up by the waist and held her against her hip. Asuka's father came up behind them and pet his daughter's hair.

"You are-by far-the most incredible teens I have ever met. Thank you for freeing us. Millions of lifetimes cannot make up for the debt that we owe you." Alzack said.

"Ah...don't sweat it. I mean, we're happy you're free and stuff." Natsu said, scratching the back of his head.

"Hang on, weren't there eight ghosts?" Gray asked, only counting seven.

Makarov nodded. "There were eight spirits that were possessed, but one of them was already dead. If I am not mistaken, he has helped you out on two occasions." He said.

"Hah!? He's the one that helped us!?" Natsu exclaimed. "Does being dead somehow break the music box's control?"

"That I cannot answer for you, my son. However, I know now that he has already passed on, for he hasn't in many years." Makarov explained.

"But that doesn't make sense, there were eight pictures, and that man that had his tongue sticking out was in one of them. Ghosts can't be in photos, right?" Erza asked.

The tall blonde man spoke for the first time, letting out a 'tch'."Don't believe everything you hear about the supernatural. We can make ourselves seen if we so wish. That is, if we are still in this world." He explained.

Captain Makarov started to change his white aura to a glowing gold one. "Well, would you look at that, our time is almost up. We must be on our way." He said with a friendly grin. "We are sincerely grateful for all that you have done. Now, if you'll excuse us, there is one thing that we must take care of." He said.

"Yes, of course. It was a pleasure to meet you. Take care." Erza said as she stepped back as the glow grew bigger and brighter.

"Bye-bye!" Asuka screamed happily from her father's shoulder. Then, all of the spirits leaped into the air and soared across the sky like comets, back into the old ship. The four teens watched them, wondering why they would want to go back there.

The ship then caught on fire.

Seven bright streaks of light exited the ship and shot into the sky, leaving no evidence of their presence in their wake. The smoke from the ship rose up into the atmosphere, making the seemingly pink clouds turn a dark purple color. The four teens could smell the smoke emitting from the ship, and knew that it was dangerous to stay there.

"Come, let us go." Erza ordered. Lucy got on Natsu's back since she couldn't run with her hurt foot and they all made their way to the barbed wire fence, carrying their packs with them. Lucy got off of Natsu's back to jump the fence herself, landing on her hands instead of her feet. Because they were a good distance away from the ship, she decided that it was okay of she just limped the rest of the way. Natsu protested profusely, but Lucy wouldn't hear any of it.

"Well, what now?" Gray asked. "I mean, we just found out that ghosts actually exist!"

"I think that it is best to keep this in the dark. Just be happy that those poor souls are not trapped here anymore." Erza said.

Gray sighed. "Alright." He said before he and Erza made their way to the main road.

"Hey Natsu?" Lucy asked. Natsu hummed, letting her know that she had his attention. "There were a couple of good things that came out of this." She said.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Natsu asked.

Lucy turned his head to face her and then put her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck. Natsu responded almost immediately, tipping her backwards to deepen the kiss. Lucy finally broke the kiss to breathe. "I love you too." She said with a grin.

Natsu couldn't have been happier.

"Ugh, I'm gonna be sick." Gray scowled in the background, looking at them.

Never mind, yes he could.

"Shut the hell up Stripper!" Natsu yelled at him. He was about to march over to him and give him a good hook to the jaw, but Lucy stopped him by intertwining her fingers with his. She then held on to his arm and rested her head on it. Natsu didn't have the heart to focus on Gray anymore.

"Come on, let's go home." Erza said.

Natsu looked down at his and Lucy's intertwined hands and smiled softly before kissing her softly on the head and squeezing her hand. "Yeah, let's go."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Hey, before we go, can we stop off by the hospital to get my foot checked out?"

"Sure, but let's get some pizza first, I'm starving!"

"Nah Stripper, let's go for Chinese."

"Pizza!"

"Chinese"

"Pizza!"

"Chinese!"

"Let's get something nutritious, like strawberry shortcake."

"Since when has strawberry shortcake been nutritious?"

"Are you hating on shortcake, Natsu!?"

"N-no ma'am!"

All the while, the cursed ship dilapidated to nothingness.

 **I am so so so so so sorry for the late update, but as I've mentioned before, I was studying for my SAT and I just took it. It took _soooo_ long! I know I didn't get 2400 because I omitted 4 questions, but hopefully I did well. The story is finally done making it my third completed work, which makes me very happy. Thank you guys so much for supporting me through this experience. **

**I also want to let you guys know that I am starting a new story. I know you guys are probably getting pretty sick of my writing, but I hope you guys like this one. The first chapter will be out soon!**

 **I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day wherever you are. And because I'm (probably) not going to be posting anything for the rest of the year...MERRY CHRISTMAS! (If you celebrate it, that is. Also, Happy (Belated) Hanuka and Kwanzaa for whoever celebrates those too.)**


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